Slovakia in the 20th Century - PDF

## SLOVAKIA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ### SLOVAK HISTORY The war deeply and lastingly marked the whole of Slovak society, although the front directly touched Slovakia only around the turn of 1914-1915. The total losses among Slovak soldiers are estimated at 69,700 dead and 61,680 disabled. In the l...

## SLOVAKIA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ### SLOVAK HISTORY The war deeply and lastingly marked the whole of Slovak society, although the front directly touched Slovakia only around the turn of 1914-1915. The total losses among Slovak soldiers are estimated at 69,700 dead and 61,680 disabled. In the last year of the war, desertions multiplied, and anti-war feelings spread among the originally loyal Slovak soldiers. This led to military mutinies at port Boka Kotorská, Rímavská Sobota, Kragujevac (44 Slovak soldiers were executed), and Bratislava. ### Establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic The impossibility of concluding a separate peace with Austria-Hungary (the truth is that the abroad struggle zealously conspired against such a conclusion because it would break their struggle for independence), and its ever closer connection with Germany, as well as the feverish diplomatic efforts of the ČSNR and mainly the ever greater strategic-military importance of the Czechoslovak Legions, which were "entangled" in revolutionary Russia, all contributed to re-evaluation of the Czecho-Slovak matter by the Entente Powers. They finally accepted the origin of nation states on the ruins of the Monarchy in the course of 1918. It was especially the achievement of T. G. Masaryk. He worked out a document, known as the Washington Declaration, and published it in the American press on 18 October 1918. The declaration announced that the/Czechoslovak nation, having lived under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for centuries, decided to form its own state on democratic principles. The document closely resembled the Declaration of Independence, so it had a great public response and the American government agreed on the establishment of Czechoslovakia. On 28th October 1918, the Czechoslovak Republic was declared in Prague. Vavro Šrobár signed its first legislative acts for the Slovaks, but without authorization of the Slovak National Council. It met on 30 October 1918 at Martin, and, without knowing the events in Prague and in substantially more complicated conditions of the still de iure existing Kingdom of Hungary, it adopted the Declaration of the Slovak Nation. It declared support for the right to self-determination and the will of the Slovaks to join a common state with the Czechs. Even though the struggle for Slovakia was only at its beginning, the Slovaks carried out a crucial step in their emancipation. ### Questions and Tasks 1. Present the examples of European states in which a minority has its own autonomy or more nations live in federacy. Is their coexistence without problems? Why was Austria-Hungary destined for break-up? 2. Why was it difficult to convince the Great Powers to establish Czechoslovakia? 3. Was the emergence of Czechoslovakia vital for the Slovaks? What did it bring to them? 4. Think about the plans of Czech and Slovak representatives at the beginning of the war and at its end. When and why did the change come? ### Abroad Struggle of the Czechs and Slovaks At the end of 1914, T. G. Masaryk left Austria with the aim of Austro-Hungarian break-up and creation of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk was one of few Czech politicians who openly disagreed with the maintenance of the Austrian Monarchy, and he saw the only future for the Czechs in the establishment of an independent state. After a short time in Switzerland, he fled to London, where he submitted his plan to the Britain government in 1915. He knew that it would be difficult to convince the Entente Powers of the inevitability of the Czech and Slovak independence. Namely, fears of the Balkanisation and national splintering of Central Europe were great, and precisely the 400-year-lasting Monarchy conveniently filled the space between Germany and Russia. From the point of view of the great powers, there was no reason to fragment it . So how he could convince the British, French, Russian, and also American representatives? Masaryk could not submit the plan to establish a multinational state, like the Habsburg Monarchy alone. Therefore, he propagated the existence of the only nation - the Czechoslovak nation and not of two separate nations. This conception was supported in Masaryk's homeland as well, but it was to cause big problems in the future. The abroad struggle, led by Masaryk, was enriched by Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik, the Slovak who introduced his fellows to the highest French statesmen. In Paris, the Czechoslovak National Council (ČSNR) was formed in 1916. Masaryk, as its chairman, developed activities mainly in London, while Štefánik was concerned with the formation of a volunteer legion from POWs, deserters and actual volunteers in France, Italy, and Russia. ### The Slovaks in the Whirlwind of the First World War #### Slovak Political Groups during the War The declaration of war on Serbia by the Vienna court caught the attention of Budapest, too. The Hungarian government, headed by István Tisa, joined military mobilization, including 400,000 Slovaks - roughly 4% of the Austro-Hungarian army. At the turn of 1914-1915, when the Russian Army crossed the Carpathians, the Slovaks took part in military actions in Eastern Slovakia near Humenné, Bardejov, Snina, and Medzilaborce. However, the Czechs and Slovaks showed little enthusiasm for fighting for their respective enemies, the Germans and the Hungarians, against fellow Slavs. The Slovak political parties, surprised by unexpected events, expressed verbal loyalty to the Monarchy. Nevertheless, they declared political passivity, so that they could avoid persecution and had not to openly proclaim support for the Monarchy's war aims. The military events whipped up the wildest chauvinism, which completely paralysed the higher level of Slovak politics. Activities of associations fell under control, censorship of the press and post prevented the spreading of information, and migration of the population was restricted. However, this did not mean that the political groups completely gave up any activity. Small groups in various towns acquired a conspiratorial-intelligence character, as they exchanged information, established contacts and co-operated with Czech political groups. The Slovaks in Vienna (Milan Hodža, Kornel Stodola) and in Prague (Anton Štefánek) played the leading role here. Emil Stodola was active in Budapest, as was Ferdinand Juriga, the only active Slovak member of the Hungarian Diet. In Bratislava, the conspiratorial threads were concentrated in the hands of the social democrat leader Emanuel Lehocký, and of Vavro Šrobár and Andrej Hlinka in Martin and Ružomberok. Nevertheless, the political passivity of the Slovak representatives overshadowed these individual actions. #### Slovak Activities in the United States Shortly before WWI, the USA was inhabited by approximately half a million of the Slovaks. The United States at the time was already a democratic country, so the American Slovaks had a different consciousness from their countrymen in Hungary. The democratic conditions enabled them to express their idea freely and to join various national, religious, sport, and economic associations. Several of them merged into the Slovak League in 1907. The breakout of the war encouraged the American countrymen to take interest in their nation's affairs. Many of them anticipated returning to their homeland after time, therefore, they were not indifferent to where they would come back. They agreed that the Slovaks were not prepared for their own state, and they saw their future in a merger with the Czechs, so linguistically and culturally similar. All the proposals, discussed by the American Slovaks, anticipated that Slovakia would have its own frontiers, self-government, and separate language. Such demands were natural since they were only modified striving for autonomy from the 19th century; however, not within the Hungarian Kingdom but in a new state. On 22 and 23 October 1915, the Slovak League and Czech associations in the United States approved a document, known as the Cleveland Agreement. They demanded the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic based on federacy, where Slovakia would be a separate unit with its own assembly, self-government, cultural freedom, and free use of the Slovak language. Both nations should establish independent territorial units linked together by a president.