The province has a unique footnote in history as the only region in the former Soviet Union to have had an American governor: its first governor was Gregory Zatkovich, an American citizen who had earlier emigrated from the region and represented the Rusyn community in the U.S. Zatkovich was appointed governor by Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Masaryk, in 1920 and served for about one year until he resigned over differences regarding the region's autonomy.