1 50 25 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/564297e124c51acbf8146700e779245b.pdf c8902b44b3741b7f99478e086393dbdd PDF Text Text MARCH- JUNE, 1960 VOL. X IN THIS ISSUE: ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH SLOV ANICS LN AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE MOSCOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SLOVAKIA STiA'illS'IIICS ANID POLITICS WELSON AND T. G. MASARYK WAS CZECH THE VEHICLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE ? BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1,939- 1945 SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM NEW BOOKS WHO SAID IT - 6, 17, 20, 49, 61 , 73 • • • Edited and compi led by PH ILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMER ICA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. SLOVAKIA NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL EUROPE, Kirschbaum: $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper): $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ''CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "CUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, h::ird struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � MARCH- JUNE, 1960 VOL. X IN THIS ISSUE: ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH SLOV ANICS LN AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE MOSCOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SLOVAKIA STiA'illS'IIICS ANID POLITICS WELSON AND T. G. MASARYK WAS CZECH THE VEHICLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE ? BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1,939- 1945 SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM NEW BOOKS WHO SAID IT - 6, 17, 20, 49, 61 , 73 • • • Edited and compi led by PH ILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMER ICA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. SLOVAKIA NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL EUROPE, Kirschbaum: $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper): $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ''CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "CUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, h::ird struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document MARCH- JUNE, 1960 VOL. X IN THIS ISSUE: ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH SLOV ANICS LN AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE MOSCOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SLOVAKIA STiA'illS'IIICS ANID POLITICS WELSON AND T. G. MASARYK WAS CZECH THE VEHICLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE ? BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1,939- 1945 SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM NEW BOOKS WHO SAID IT - 6, 17, 20, 49, 61 , 73 • • • Edited and compi led by PH ILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMER ICA RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. SLOVAKIA NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL EUROPE, Kirschbaum: $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper): $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ''CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "CUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, h::ird struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/db4fe92a0dc1d3e75eb069966e827948.pdf 680ad131f14bd4718b4eb7d84ce08d2e PDF Text Text SLOV AKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. X MARCH-JUNE, 1960 NO. 6 (31) ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH Two events, the anniversaries of which were celebrated in 1958,left deep marks on European and world history: the founding of Czecho-Slovakia 40 years ago on October 28, 1918, and its cession to Germany of the Sudeten lands, the execution of which was regulated between England, France, Italy and Germany 20 years ago in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938. Po1iticrul observers witlh but superficial knowledge of the domestic conditions in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia often see the Anschluss with Germany of the Sudetenland in the fall of 1938 solely as a consequence of Hitler's power policy and deny the existence of serious nationality pr,oblems in Masaryk's and Benes' little "model democracy." They therefore judge the material value of these events as results of dictatorial coercion, which they reject. It cannot be denied tha,t Hitler's interference affected the solution of the Sudeten German question in 1938. lt should not be overlooked, however, that Hitler neither creoced the Sudeten issue, nor did the Sudeten Germans ever form a fi:flth column within Czecho-Slovalria, as malevolenits sometimes maintain. The Sudeten issue had existed as an internal Czecho-Slovak problem ever since that country's very beginnings. Hitler, to be sure, raised this question to the level of international politics. Involuntarily h e was aided by the Cech governmenlt's rigid frustration of any fair agreement on the nationality issue with the Sudeten Germans from 1918 to 1938. The truth of this statement is proven by the debate in the Br1tish House of Oommons on October 3, 1938, where representatives of all parties expressed the convict ion that the Munich decision was but a .correction of a wrong inflicted upon the Sudeten Germans 20 years ago �2 SLOVAKIA at the peace conference of St. Germain. Neville Henderson, then British Ambassador to Berlin, summarized his judgment on the affuir in the words: Czecho-S[ovakia lost territories which better had not been inco~porated into the Czech State at the Versailles Peace Conference and which - except on the basis of a federation - could not have remained there forever. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish carefully bet ween the Anschluss of the Sudeten region with Germany in September-October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of the Czech-inhabited parts of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939, when the Reich .government established a protectorate over the Czech people. The Sudeten C'~rmans had nothing whatsoever to do with this aot of Hitler's. In fact, they disapproved of it because their experience during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic had taught them that a durable and peaceful settlement could not be reached within Central Europe u111less it was based on a strictJly equal treatment of both Czechs and Germans, and that any discriminatory policy of one of them toward the other would necessarily lead to unrest. The violation of this principle had caused the disruption of Czecho-S'lovakia; its neglect by Hirtler was also to have serious consequences. The physical and tempora:l proximity of Sudetenland's Anschluss with Germany in October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of Prague in March, 1939, as well as his dmmaJtic pal'ticipation in both events, together with the anti-German war propaganda that shortly ensued, caused many persons to see in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938, a dishonest ·defeat of the democracies by Hitler's shrewd power politics. Even to<my there lingers an aftertaste of vacillating appeasemenrt when the Munich Agreement is mentioned. But "Munich" gained this ill repute unjustly. For the M'llllich Agreement did not contain a demand on CzechoSlovakia to cede to Germany the Sudeten territory, nor was Czecho-Slovakia forced by the agreement to such cession. The Czecho-Slovak governmenit had one week previously expressed to the ambassadors of France and �SLOVAKIA 3 Great Bdtai.n in Prague iJt.s willingness to band over to GeI'Illany the German-inhabited areas of western CzechoS'lovakia. Upon that declaration of cession the British and French heads of government had acted when they went to Munich to negotiate with Hitler on the procedure fur transferring the areas in question from Czech to German authority. (1) It is necessary to note in this context that t!he legaJlity of said cession was universally acknowledged at that time. Czecho-Slovakia Not Homogeneous In order to understand the internal causes of the 1938 Sudeten crisis it will be necessary to review briefly the conditions as they existed in pre-war -- Czecho-Slovakiia and to tra;ce the problem to its roots. Until 1918, the area known a-s Czecho-Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian mum-national empire. At the Paris Peace Oonference Benes demanded the dissolution of Austriia-Hungary and .the founding of a Czech State on the ground of national self-determination and certain historic claims. By resorting to fallsified population statistics and erroneously drawn maps he caused the forceful inclusion of more than three million Sudeten Germ.ans into the Czech State, at the same time denying those Germans - at the point of a gun - the very right of selfdetermination he had requested and obtained from the peace conference for his own nation. (2) Czecho-Slovakia was by no means a nationally homogeneous StaJte. The census of 1930 (naturally, inc'lined to favor tihe Czechs) revealed that country's population to number 7.2 million Czechs, 3.3 million Germans, 2.3 mHlion Slovaks, 700,000 Magyars, 550,000 Ukrainians, 190,000 Jews (3) , and 130,000 Poles and others. Almost one-half the country's population was non-Czech - accoirding to official Czech figures. That the Slovaks and Czechs together do not constitute a unitary nation, is obvious to anyone conversant with the history and language of these two peoples. The need to seek a workable agreement between the Czech government and the 7 million non-Czech people in �4 SLOVAKIA the CSR was well conceived by the participants of the peace conference, especially by the representatives of the United States. The American delegates objected strenuously to the violation of the self-determination right with respect to the Sudeten Germans and the drawing of boundruries on strategic principles. ( 4) Even the Commission ron the new State at the peace conference warned in its final report that "the prosperity and perhaps almost the existence of the new State will depend upon the success with which it incorporates the Germans as wirling citizens." Czech Discriminatory Measures But instead of realistically accepting the multi-national character of the State as a factor State poliicy must reckon with, the Czech leaders used shrewd administrative tactics to advance into the areas in which the other national groups were settled. Benes' solemn promise at the peace conference of St. Germain in 1918, to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sort of Switzerland, in which the various nationalri ties could live side by side and share equal rights (5), remained but an empty promise. To what extent the official State policy was guided by discriminatory lines becomes obvious by citing but a few exiamples: In 1919 the nobility was deprived of land in accordance with the land expropriation act. Between 1921 and 1924 about 1,500 acres of this land were turned over to Germans, while over 600,000 acres were given to Czech settlers, although the land in question lay almost exclusively within German territory. Thus the land reform be, came in fact an instrument of Czech penetration into German land. After the founding of ,tJhe Czecho-Slovak State, 60,000 German public servants were dismissed from office and replaced by Czechs who worked in areas exclusively Germain though often they were unable to wnderstand a single word of Germ'a n. rr,he number of pupils per classroom was raised from 40 to 60, resulting in the dissolution of more than 1,000 German elementary school cla:sses between 1921 and 1935. �SLOVAKIA 5 Concurrently there were set up palatial schools for the children of Czech officialdom in the Sudetenland for whom the above-mention ed figures did not apply. To denationalize the German areas, attempts were made to make the schools atJtractive to German children; unemployed persons were urged to send their children the-re with promises of a warm noon meal and ariticles of clothing, features which ,the poorly equipped German schools could not afford. The government made the placing of State orders with German industries dependent on whether or not a certain percenitage of Czech workers were employed. This led to dismissals of German workmen with the result that when tlhe economic depression of the 1930's struck, 500,000 of the tota'l 800,000 jobless in Czecho-Slova kia were of German ethnic origin. This meant that every sixth Sudeten German in Czecho-Slovak ia was jobless, while of the more than 11 mil.Jion non-German members of the population, only every 36th person had to live on the meager unemployment compensation . As the Czech government refused to take any action on the complaints of the Sudeten Germans, however justified, tfue Sudeten leaders were constrruined to register 22 complaints with the League of Nations, hoping that Czecho-Slovakia would be urged by that organization to live up to its obligations as provided in the peace treaty and the international treaty on the protection of minorities, which was part of the pea(!e settlement. Sudeten German Loyalty Lovd Runcima:n, British investigator and mediator, confirmed the facts and summarized his findings in a report to the British Prime Minister of September, 1938. "It is a hard thing to be ruled by an alien race; and I have been left with the impression that the Czecho-Slovak rule in the Sudeten areas for the last twenty years ... has been marked by .tactlessness, lack of understanding , petty intolerance and discrimination , to a point where the resentment of the German population was inevitably moving in the direction of revolt." �6 SLOVAKIA Despite these grievances, the Sudeten Germans had loyally done their duty. Three major political parties tried to cooperate w1th the Czech government. Even Herillein's Sudeten German Party had soughit a solution for years on the basis of German-Czech reconciliation with the State. Up to the summer of 1938 its program called for Sudeten German "home rule." Before May 21, 1938, when Benes mobilized the Czecho-Slovak army, Hitler had not taken any conceivable interest in the Sudeten German grievances and it wou1d have been possible to solve the question on an internal 11ather than an international level, provided the Czech goviernment had shown "any readiness to remedy them on an adequate scale," as Lord Runciman put it. When Benes offered his so-caHed "Fourth Plan" which he later called a jest - fairly meeting the Sudeten German requests, the final decision was no longer his or Henlein's. The Sudeten question had already grown f.rom a domestic afifair into a serious international crisis. - S. B. (1) A detailed study wHh aimplle reiference to then conteimporary sources is to be found in Herman RaS:Ohh()lfer's "Die Sudetenfrage," Munich, 1953, and Wenzel Jaksch's "Europas Weg nach Potsdam," S'tuttgart, 1958. (2) On Maoch 4, 1<919, when Sudeten Gerlffians of all political affiliations protested pUiblicly a,gainst this denial of self-deterunir.,ation and foreed submission to Czech domination, the Cz<eeh army fired into the crowds causing 54 dead and man,y wounded. (3) In Czecho-Slovakia the Jews were considered as a separate nationality. (4) Of. H. Nicolsen, Peace Making, London, 1938. (5) 1Dr. Edward Benes in Aid Memoire m: ".Et is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak government ... to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sorit of Switzerland." • • • WHO SAID IT? "In Ozech ,politics, in Ozech national life, it is urgent that we COlffie to am understanding with the Communist Party . . . the COilnllllll.llllist party shahl remain the greatest force in our political scheme even after the elections are over, and socialism shall remain the foundation of our national life. . . . Oommg to terms with the Communists is the golden theme of our politi<!al philosophy." - (1F erdinan.d Peroutka, a Benes Czech employed by Radio Free Europe, DNE~IDK, 2-9-48). � SLOV AKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. X MARCH-JUNE, 1960 NO. 6 (31) ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH Two events, the anniversaries of which were celebrated in 1958,left deep marks on European and world history: the founding of Czecho-Slovakia 40 years ago on October 28, 1918, and its cession to Germany of the Sudeten lands, the execution of which was regulated between England, France, Italy and Germany 20 years ago in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938. Po1iticrul observers witlh but superficial knowledge of the domestic conditions in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia often see the Anschluss with Germany of the Sudetenland in the fall of 1938 solely as a consequence of Hitler's power policy and deny the existence of serious nationality pr,oblems in Masaryk's and Benes' little "model democracy." They therefore judge the material value of these events as results of dictatorial coercion, which they reject. It cannot be denied tha,t Hitler's interference affected the solution of the Sudeten German question in 1938. lt should not be overlooked, however, that Hitler neither creoced the Sudeten issue, nor did the Sudeten Germans ever form a fi:flth column within Czecho-Slovalria, as malevolenits sometimes maintain. The Sudeten issue had existed as an internal Czecho-Slovak problem ever since that country's very beginnings. Hitler, to be sure, raised this question to the level of international politics. Involuntarily h e was aided by the Cech governmenlt's rigid frustration of any fair agreement on the nationality issue with the Sudeten Germans from 1918 to 1938. The truth of this statement is proven by the debate in the Br1tish House of Oommons on October 3, 1938, where representatives of all parties expressed the convict ion that the Munich decision was but a .correction of a wrong inflicted upon the Sudeten Germans 20 years ago �2 SLOVAKIA at the peace conference of St. Germain. Neville Henderson, then British Ambassador to Berlin, summarized his judgment on the affuir in the words: Czecho-S[ovakia lost territories which better had not been inco~porated into the Czech State at the Versailles Peace Conference and which - except on the basis of a federation - could not have remained there forever. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish carefully bet ween the Anschluss of the Sudeten region with Germany in September-October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of the Czech-inhabited parts of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939, when the Reich .government established a protectorate over the Czech people. The Sudeten C'~rmans had nothing whatsoever to do with this aot of Hitler's. In fact, they disapproved of it because their experience during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic had taught them that a durable and peaceful settlement could not be reached within Central Europe u111less it was based on a strictJly equal treatment of both Czechs and Germans, and that any discriminatory policy of one of them toward the other would necessarily lead to unrest. The violation of this principle had caused the disruption of Czecho-S'lovakia; its neglect by Hirtler was also to have serious consequences. The physical and tempora:l proximity of Sudetenland's Anschluss with Germany in October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of Prague in March, 1939, as well as his dmmaJtic pal'ticipation in both events, together with the anti-German war propaganda that shortly ensued, caused many persons to see in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938, a dishonest ·defeat of the democracies by Hitler's shrewd power politics. Even to<my there lingers an aftertaste of vacillating appeasemenrt when the Munich Agreement is mentioned. But "Munich" gained this ill repute unjustly. For the M'llllich Agreement did not contain a demand on CzechoSlovakia to cede to Germany the Sudeten territory, nor was Czecho-Slovakia forced by the agreement to such cession. The Czecho-Slovak governmenit had one week previously expressed to the ambassadors of France and �SLOVAKIA 3 Great Bdtai.n in Prague iJt.s willingness to band over to GeI'Illany the German-inhabited areas of western CzechoS'lovakia. Upon that declaration of cession the British and French heads of government had acted when they went to Munich to negotiate with Hitler on the procedure fur transferring the areas in question from Czech to German authority. (1) It is necessary to note in this context that t!he legaJlity of said cession was universally acknowledged at that time. Czecho-Slovakia Not Homogeneous In order to understand the internal causes of the 1938 Sudeten crisis it will be necessary to review briefly the conditions as they existed in pre-war -- Czecho-Slovakiia and to tra;ce the problem to its roots. Until 1918, the area known a-s Czecho-Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian mum-national empire. At the Paris Peace Oonference Benes demanded the dissolution of Austriia-Hungary and .the founding of a Czech State on the ground of national self-determination and certain historic claims. By resorting to fallsified population statistics and erroneously drawn maps he caused the forceful inclusion of more than three million Sudeten Germ.ans into the Czech State, at the same time denying those Germans - at the point of a gun - the very right of selfdetermination he had requested and obtained from the peace conference for his own nation. (2) Czecho-Slovakia was by no means a nationally homogeneous StaJte. The census of 1930 (naturally, inc'lined to favor tihe Czechs) revealed that country's population to number 7.2 million Czechs, 3.3 million Germans, 2.3 mHlion Slovaks, 700,000 Magyars, 550,000 Ukrainians, 190,000 Jews (3) , and 130,000 Poles and others. Almost one-half the country's population was non-Czech - accoirding to official Czech figures. That the Slovaks and Czechs together do not constitute a unitary nation, is obvious to anyone conversant with the history and language of these two peoples. The need to seek a workable agreement between the Czech government and the 7 million non-Czech people in �4 SLOVAKIA the CSR was well conceived by the participants of the peace conference, especially by the representatives of the United States. The American delegates objected strenuously to the violation of the self-determination right with respect to the Sudeten Germans and the drawing of boundruries on strategic principles. ( 4) Even the Commission ron the new State at the peace conference warned in its final report that "the prosperity and perhaps almost the existence of the new State will depend upon the success with which it incorporates the Germans as wirling citizens." Czech Discriminatory Measures But instead of realistically accepting the multi-national character of the State as a factor State poliicy must reckon with, the Czech leaders used shrewd administrative tactics to advance into the areas in which the other national groups were settled. Benes' solemn promise at the peace conference of St. Germain in 1918, to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sort of Switzerland, in which the various nationalri ties could live side by side and share equal rights (5), remained but an empty promise. To what extent the official State policy was guided by discriminatory lines becomes obvious by citing but a few exiamples: In 1919 the nobility was deprived of land in accordance with the land expropriation act. Between 1921 and 1924 about 1,500 acres of this land were turned over to Germans, while over 600,000 acres were given to Czech settlers, although the land in question lay almost exclusively within German territory. Thus the land reform be, came in fact an instrument of Czech penetration into German land. After the founding of ,tJhe Czecho-Slovak State, 60,000 German public servants were dismissed from office and replaced by Czechs who worked in areas exclusively Germain though often they were unable to wnderstand a single word of Germ'a n. rr,he number of pupils per classroom was raised from 40 to 60, resulting in the dissolution of more than 1,000 German elementary school cla:sses between 1921 and 1935. �SLOVAKIA 5 Concurrently there were set up palatial schools for the children of Czech officialdom in the Sudetenland for whom the above-mention ed figures did not apply. To denationalize the German areas, attempts were made to make the schools atJtractive to German children; unemployed persons were urged to send their children the-re with promises of a warm noon meal and ariticles of clothing, features which ,the poorly equipped German schools could not afford. The government made the placing of State orders with German industries dependent on whether or not a certain percenitage of Czech workers were employed. This led to dismissals of German workmen with the result that when tlhe economic depression of the 1930's struck, 500,000 of the tota'l 800,000 jobless in Czecho-Slova kia were of German ethnic origin. This meant that every sixth Sudeten German in Czecho-Slovak ia was jobless, while of the more than 11 mil.Jion non-German members of the population, only every 36th person had to live on the meager unemployment compensation . As the Czech government refused to take any action on the complaints of the Sudeten Germans, however justified, tfue Sudeten leaders were constrruined to register 22 complaints with the League of Nations, hoping that Czecho-Slovakia would be urged by that organization to live up to its obligations as provided in the peace treaty and the international treaty on the protection of minorities, which was part of the pea(!e settlement. Sudeten German Loyalty Lovd Runcima:n, British investigator and mediator, confirmed the facts and summarized his findings in a report to the British Prime Minister of September, 1938. "It is a hard thing to be ruled by an alien race; and I have been left with the impression that the Czecho-Slovak rule in the Sudeten areas for the last twenty years ... has been marked by .tactlessness, lack of understanding , petty intolerance and discrimination , to a point where the resentment of the German population was inevitably moving in the direction of revolt." �6 SLOVAKIA Despite these grievances, the Sudeten Germans had loyally done their duty. Three major political parties tried to cooperate w1th the Czech government. Even Herillein's Sudeten German Party had soughit a solution for years on the basis of German-Czech reconciliation with the State. Up to the summer of 1938 its program called for Sudeten German "home rule." Before May 21, 1938, when Benes mobilized the Czecho-Slovak army, Hitler had not taken any conceivable interest in the Sudeten German grievances and it wou1d have been possible to solve the question on an internal 11ather than an international level, provided the Czech goviernment had shown "any readiness to remedy them on an adequate scale," as Lord Runciman put it. When Benes offered his so-caHed "Fourth Plan" which he later called a jest - fairly meeting the Sudeten German requests, the final decision was no longer his or Henlein's. The Sudeten question had already grown f.rom a domestic afifair into a serious international crisis. - S. B. (1) A detailed study wHh aimplle reiference to then conteimporary sources is to be found in Herman RaS:Ohh()lfer's "Die Sudetenfrage," Munich, 1953, and Wenzel Jaksch's "Europas Weg nach Potsdam," S'tuttgart, 1958. (2) On Maoch 4, 1<919, when Sudeten Gerlffians of all political affiliations protested pUiblicly a,gainst this denial of self-deterunir.,ation and foreed submission to Czech domination, the Cz<eeh army fired into the crowds causing 54 dead and man,y wounded. (3) In Czecho-Slovakia the Jews were considered as a separate nationality. (4) Of. H. Nicolsen, Peace Making, London, 1938. (5) 1Dr. Edward Benes in Aid Memoire m: ".Et is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak government ... to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sorit of Switzerland." • • • WHO SAID IT? "In Ozech ,politics, in Ozech national life, it is urgent that we COlffie to am understanding with the Communist Party . . . the COilnllllll.llllist party shahl remain the greatest force in our political scheme even after the elections are over, and socialism shall remain the foundation of our national life. . . . Oommg to terms with the Communists is the golden theme of our politi<!al philosophy." - (1F erdinan.d Peroutka, a Benes Czech employed by Radio Free Europe, DNE~IDK, 2-9-48). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOV AKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. X MARCH-JUNE, 1960 NO. 6 (31) ST. GERMAIN AND MUNICH Two events, the anniversaries of which were celebrated in 1958,left deep marks on European and world history: the founding of Czecho-Slovakia 40 years ago on October 28, 1918, and its cession to Germany of the Sudeten lands, the execution of which was regulated between England, France, Italy and Germany 20 years ago in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938. Po1iticrul observers witlh but superficial knowledge of the domestic conditions in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia often see the Anschluss with Germany of the Sudetenland in the fall of 1938 solely as a consequence of Hitler's power policy and deny the existence of serious nationality pr,oblems in Masaryk's and Benes' little "model democracy." They therefore judge the material value of these events as results of dictatorial coercion, which they reject. It cannot be denied tha,t Hitler's interference affected the solution of the Sudeten German question in 1938. lt should not be overlooked, however, that Hitler neither creoced the Sudeten issue, nor did the Sudeten Germans ever form a fi:flth column within Czecho-Slovalria, as malevolenits sometimes maintain. The Sudeten issue had existed as an internal Czecho-Slovak problem ever since that country's very beginnings. Hitler, to be sure, raised this question to the level of international politics. Involuntarily h e was aided by the Cech governmenlt's rigid frustration of any fair agreement on the nationality issue with the Sudeten Germans from 1918 to 1938. The truth of this statement is proven by the debate in the Br1tish House of Oommons on October 3, 1938, where representatives of all parties expressed the convict ion that the Munich decision was but a .correction of a wrong inflicted upon the Sudeten Germans 20 years ago 2 SLOVAKIA at the peace conference of St. Germain. Neville Henderson, then British Ambassador to Berlin, summarized his judgment on the affuir in the words: Czecho-S[ovakia lost territories which better had not been inco~porated into the Czech State at the Versailles Peace Conference and which - except on the basis of a federation - could not have remained there forever. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish carefully bet ween the Anschluss of the Sudeten region with Germany in September-October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of the Czech-inhabited parts of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939, when the Reich .government established a protectorate over the Czech people. The Sudeten C'~rmans had nothing whatsoever to do with this aot of Hitler's. In fact, they disapproved of it because their experience during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic had taught them that a durable and peaceful settlement could not be reached within Central Europe u111less it was based on a strictJly equal treatment of both Czechs and Germans, and that any discriminatory policy of one of them toward the other would necessarily lead to unrest. The violation of this principle had caused the disruption of Czecho-S'lovakia; its neglect by Hirtler was also to have serious consequences. The physical and tempora:l proximity of Sudetenland's Anschluss with Germany in October, 1938, and Hitler's occupation of Prague in March, 1939, as well as his dmmaJtic pal'ticipation in both events, together with the anti-German war propaganda that shortly ensued, caused many persons to see in the Munich Agreement of September 29, 1938, a dishonest ·defeat of the democracies by Hitler's shrewd power politics. Even to<my there lingers an aftertaste of vacillating appeasemenrt when the Munich Agreement is mentioned. But "Munich" gained this ill repute unjustly. For the M'llllich Agreement did not contain a demand on CzechoSlovakia to cede to Germany the Sudeten territory, nor was Czecho-Slovakia forced by the agreement to such cession. The Czecho-Slovak governmenit had one week previously expressed to the ambassadors of France and SLOVAKIA 3 Great Bdtai.n in Prague iJt.s willingness to band over to GeI'Illany the German-inhabited areas of western CzechoS'lovakia. Upon that declaration of cession the British and French heads of government had acted when they went to Munich to negotiate with Hitler on the procedure fur transferring the areas in question from Czech to German authority. (1) It is necessary to note in this context that t!he legaJlity of said cession was universally acknowledged at that time. Czecho-Slovakia Not Homogeneous In order to understand the internal causes of the 1938 Sudeten crisis it will be necessary to review briefly the conditions as they existed in pre-war -- Czecho-Slovakiia and to tra;ce the problem to its roots. Until 1918, the area known a-s Czecho-Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian mum-national empire. At the Paris Peace Oonference Benes demanded the dissolution of Austriia-Hungary and .the founding of a Czech State on the ground of national self-determination and certain historic claims. By resorting to fallsified population statistics and erroneously drawn maps he caused the forceful inclusion of more than three million Sudeten Germ.ans into the Czech State, at the same time denying those Germans - at the point of a gun - the very right of selfdetermination he had requested and obtained from the peace conference for his own nation. (2) Czecho-Slovakia was by no means a nationally homogeneous StaJte. The census of 1930 (naturally, inc'lined to favor tihe Czechs) revealed that country's population to number 7.2 million Czechs, 3.3 million Germans, 2.3 mHlion Slovaks, 700,000 Magyars, 550,000 Ukrainians, 190,000 Jews (3) , and 130,000 Poles and others. Almost one-half the country's population was non-Czech - accoirding to official Czech figures. That the Slovaks and Czechs together do not constitute a unitary nation, is obvious to anyone conversant with the history and language of these two peoples. The need to seek a workable agreement between the Czech government and the 7 million non-Czech people in 4 SLOVAKIA the CSR was well conceived by the participants of the peace conference, especially by the representatives of the United States. The American delegates objected strenuously to the violation of the self-determination right with respect to the Sudeten Germans and the drawing of boundruries on strategic principles. ( 4) Even the Commission ron the new State at the peace conference warned in its final report that "the prosperity and perhaps almost the existence of the new State will depend upon the success with which it incorporates the Germans as wirling citizens." Czech Discriminatory Measures But instead of realistically accepting the multi-national character of the State as a factor State poliicy must reckon with, the Czech leaders used shrewd administrative tactics to advance into the areas in which the other national groups were settled. Benes' solemn promise at the peace conference of St. Germain in 1918, to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sort of Switzerland, in which the various nationalri ties could live side by side and share equal rights (5), remained but an empty promise. To what extent the official State policy was guided by discriminatory lines becomes obvious by citing but a few exiamples: In 1919 the nobility was deprived of land in accordance with the land expropriation act. Between 1921 and 1924 about 1,500 acres of this land were turned over to Germans, while over 600,000 acres were given to Czech settlers, although the land in question lay almost exclusively within German territory. Thus the land reform be, came in fact an instrument of Czech penetration into German land. After the founding of ,tJhe Czecho-Slovak State, 60,000 German public servants were dismissed from office and replaced by Czechs who worked in areas exclusively Germain though often they were unable to wnderstand a single word of Germ'a n. rr,he number of pupils per classroom was raised from 40 to 60, resulting in the dissolution of more than 1,000 German elementary school cla:sses between 1921 and 1935. SLOVAKIA 5 Concurrently there were set up palatial schools for the children of Czech officialdom in the Sudetenland for whom the above-mention ed figures did not apply. To denationalize the German areas, attempts were made to make the schools atJtractive to German children; unemployed persons were urged to send their children the-re with promises of a warm noon meal and ariticles of clothing, features which ,the poorly equipped German schools could not afford. The government made the placing of State orders with German industries dependent on whether or not a certain percenitage of Czech workers were employed. This led to dismissals of German workmen with the result that when tlhe economic depression of the 1930's struck, 500,000 of the tota'l 800,000 jobless in Czecho-Slova kia were of German ethnic origin. This meant that every sixth Sudeten German in Czecho-Slovak ia was jobless, while of the more than 11 mil.Jion non-German members of the population, only every 36th person had to live on the meager unemployment compensation . As the Czech government refused to take any action on the complaints of the Sudeten Germans, however justified, tfue Sudeten leaders were constrruined to register 22 complaints with the League of Nations, hoping that Czecho-Slovakia would be urged by that organization to live up to its obligations as provided in the peace treaty and the international treaty on the protection of minorities, which was part of the pea(!e settlement. Sudeten German Loyalty Lovd Runcima:n, British investigator and mediator, confirmed the facts and summarized his findings in a report to the British Prime Minister of September, 1938. "It is a hard thing to be ruled by an alien race; and I have been left with the impression that the Czecho-Slovak rule in the Sudeten areas for the last twenty years ... has been marked by .tactlessness, lack of understanding , petty intolerance and discrimination , to a point where the resentment of the German population was inevitably moving in the direction of revolt." 6 SLOVAKIA Despite these grievances, the Sudeten Germans had loyally done their duty. Three major political parties tried to cooperate w1th the Czech government. Even Herillein's Sudeten German Party had soughit a solution for years on the basis of German-Czech reconciliation with the State. Up to the summer of 1938 its program called for Sudeten German "home rule." Before May 21, 1938, when Benes mobilized the Czecho-Slovak army, Hitler had not taken any conceivable interest in the Sudeten German grievances and it wou1d have been possible to solve the question on an internal 11ather than an international level, provided the Czech goviernment had shown "any readiness to remedy them on an adequate scale," as Lord Runciman put it. When Benes offered his so-caHed "Fourth Plan" which he later called a jest - fairly meeting the Sudeten German requests, the final decision was no longer his or Henlein's. The Sudeten question had already grown f.rom a domestic afifair into a serious international crisis. - S. B. (1) A detailed study wHh aimplle reiference to then conteimporary sources is to be found in Herman RaS:Ohh()lfer's "Die Sudetenfrage," Munich, 1953, and Wenzel Jaksch's "Europas Weg nach Potsdam," S'tuttgart, 1958. (2) On Maoch 4, 1<919, when Sudeten Gerlffians of all political affiliations protested pUiblicly a,gainst this denial of self-deterunir.,ation and foreed submission to Czech domination, the Cz<eeh army fired into the crowds causing 54 dead and man,y wounded. (3) In Czecho-Slovakia the Jews were considered as a separate nationality. (4) Of. H. Nicolsen, Peace Making, London, 1938. (5) 1Dr. Edward Benes in Aid Memoire m: ".Et is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak government ... to make of Czecho-Slovakia a sorit of Switzerland." • • • WHO SAID IT? "In Ozech ,politics, in Ozech national life, it is urgent that we COlffie to am understanding with the Communist Party . . . the COilnllllll.llllist party shahl remain the greatest force in our political scheme even after the elections are over, and socialism shall remain the foundation of our national life. . . . Oommg to terms with the Communists is the golden theme of our politi<!al philosophy." - (1F erdinan.d Peroutka, a Benes Czech employed by Radio Free Europe, DNE~IDK, 2-9-48).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. Germain and Munich Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 1-6 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1745346897ea3701aa89e1a6f33b4835.pdf 19a4811a83ce822f7acbcf2cfe8eac9d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 7 SLOV ANICS IN AMERICAN SEOONDARY SCHOOLS William S. Patala That the Slavic languages are not taught in our American schools - in our high schools especially, but also in our colleges and even grade schools - is a sad fact which is lately coming around to admitting this deficiency, and the need for a remedy; public opinion is stirring in a similar vein; and some statesmen are speaking up for a new progra;m to rectify the absence of courses in the Slav languages in our educational system. These groups are moved by a realization not only of the world position in which communism puts the Slovanic nations it controls, but also by an awareness of the rising prominence of these nations in the 20th century irrespective of that totalitariain regime, and then too by a recognition of the ever-increasing volume of travel and tourism, which is making contact - and will make contact much more when the Iron Curtain rises - witih the eastern half of Europe, the Slav world, as never before. 'Dhese considerations and others, are pressing more and more for Americans to learn a Slavic tongue a-s their second language. Of course, all ethnic groups of rectn immigration, including the Slovaks to be sure, have a long time recognized the value of American youths learning foreign languages, although each nationality insisted, as might be expected, on their own as the first to be learned. And these peoples, especially the Catholics among them because of their private schools, have tried to teach their descendants in America the ancestral tongue - at least to the first and second generation, where there was still living contact with the spoken foreign language. But these efforts of national groups are on the wane, so that if American youths are to learn a European language, and especially a Slavic one, it will have to be through the instrumentality of the regular American high schools. These schools already have in .their curricula the other European vernaculars: German, French, Spanish, but they do not have Slavic. �8 SLOVAKIA What Slavic Language? If our high schools should decid~ to introduce the Siovanic languages into their courses, however - and rising pressure may wen move them to do so soon - they will have to solve one outstanding difficulity which presents itself immediately. This difficulty must be settled before the composition of a text book oon even be undertaken. And that problem is, namely, which Slav language shall be taught? For O'bviously they cannot aJII be taught, since ther are some nine prominent ones. So the question is which one should be singled out for this honorable use. The first answer that presents itself is Russian. This is by far the largest Slavic tongue in use, and Russia naturally seems to be the mother of all the Slovanic naitions. Bult Russia has never filled thus "natural" position of a mother: whether communist or czarist, her interest in the other Slav countries has always been selfish. Although all these nations would each raise an objection to the choice of every language except their own, nevertheless their strongest dbjection would be to the use of Russian, since their feeling for Russia extends in genera!l from mistrust to hatred, the latter especially by Poland and the Ukraine. Other dif:filculties also attend t:Jhe use of Russian, above all the strange alphabet, then borrowed and original words, and again the oriental and Orthodox culture of that country, etc. This writer would recommend as the basic language to be taughrt in a course of "High School Sfovanics" the use of the Slovak tongue. My choice of Slovak for this highly-representative position stands on three arguments of varying force : First, a negative argument, whfoh is equally valid for the use of any O'f the Stavic tongues (except a fringe language like Rumanian) ; this proof is intended to show why Slovak should not be excluded by a prior judgment; and it is this, that any Slavic tongue is a key to all of them. Consider how similar the viarious - we could almost call them dialects - of the Slav race are, from the following selections. If you know Slovak well, you will easily enough gather the thought of each quotiation: �SLOVAKIA 9 (1) (Ruthenian or Rusin): "0 Bohorodice D'ivo Marije, radujsja, raduj nebes lelije. Solncem pribranna, vkryta duhoju, Marije cista, Hospod's Toboju." (2) (Church or Old Slovanic, or Bulgarian): (InternationaJ alpha) : "Pri:z;ri na mja i pomilum mja. Da priblicitsja molitva moja pred fa Hospodi, po slovesi tvojemu vrazumi mja." (3) (Czech): "Za tri tisice roku, ach, co tu bude Zmen, a co tu bude skoku pres hroby slavnych jmen !" (4) (Polish): "Jezeli domu sam Pan nie zbuluje, Daremnie nad nim rzemieslnik pracuje. Jok od pocz~tku byla tak i ninie, I na wiek wiekow niechaj zawsze slynie." (5) (Slovenian: "Sedaj prosi ljubega Boga, naj Ti odpusti vse Tvoje grehe, ki si se jih spovedal, a tudi grehe vsega Tvojega zivljenja." (6) (Croatian and Serbian): (International script) : "Pricekajte jedan minut. Gde su vojnici? Drago mi je poznati vas. Molim vas pomozite mi." (7) (Ukrainian): (International alphabet): "V nasich cerkvach je zvicaj otvirati dveri na pocatku Bozestvennoji Liturgiji." (8) (White Rusian): "Kaznamu, chto hetak vyjavic usie svaje hrachii klo jon scyra za ich zaleje, mozna dac sakramentalnaje razihresennie." (9) (Russian): (International alphabet) : "So mnoju liudi bez imion." Secondly, a practical reason for my picking Slovak as the one language to be taught is a Slovanic grammar. Since I am doing the selecting, I naturally choose the lianguage most familiar and most dear to me. This is Slovak. But finally, the conclusive argument, that shows Slovak to be the ideal tongue for use in a text book of Slovanics is its unique position in connection with all the Slavic tongues. Slovak is the one language best understood by all the Slav peoples! This is so because it has the closest relations with all the other Slavic vernaculars as any of them has: most words in common, most letters and constructions in common, least foreign additions, least changes of its own. Note the words of Professor John D. Prince of Columbia University in the News Bulletin of the Amer- �10 SLOVAKIA ican Association of Teachers of Slovanic and East European Lianguages, Dec. 15, 1943: "Of the nine principal Slovanic variants (Rus., Wh. Rus., Ukr., Cz., Pol., Serb., Croat. and Bulg.) Slovak contains the greatest number of forms common to all ... . To apply the pragmatic test, Slovak is of all the Slovanic tongues the most readily understood by other Slavs." And H. L. Menchken says in The American Language: "A peasant from Sfovakia enjoying the benefit of a central position in the Slavonic territory, is understood by a Slav from any other country." Therefore, in the words of the great reformer of the Slovak language, I',udovit Stur (1814-1856): "Slovak appears to us as a distinct and separate language, without which it would be impracticable to formulate a comparative grammar of Slavic tongues, because it forms a connecting link between them all." The Integration of the Basic Language With Elements of the Other Slav Tongues Now, having settled this problem regaroing the choice of one basic language - be it Slovak or some other we should next consider all the various elements which would combine to make the text book reaMy a Slovanic grammar, and not a grammar only of the language it features. Besides teaching the student one language, which is ,a key to all thke Slavic tongues, the Slovanic grammar would acquaint him with the various languages in other ways also. While presenting only one tongue, it would also give knowledge of the other Slavic nations and cultures. Thus it would be a genuine (and feasible, we think) compromise between all the tongues, which, as we have said, is impracticable, and teaching only one, which is too limited and insufficient, by itself. The SloV'anic text book would present the basic language completely; its declensions, conjugations, syntax, vocabulary, but at the same time it would also present the history of the Slavic race, a description of the individual nations with their geography and statistics, the salient points of their literature, music, art, and even some excerpts from their poetry and prose. In this way, the student would have a working mastery of one Slav language, through it a key to all the Slav tongues, and an under- �SLOVAKIA 11 standing of the position, history and culture of each nation. What better acquaintance than this could a person hope to have with nine languages, without studying each one of the individually? Let us consider in detail how these two elements: the one language and the various cultures, would appear in our S'lovanics book. The basic language would be presented pretty much th€ way it is in any (Siovak) grammar. We might, for this purpose, take Hrobak's Slovak Lessons, which is recognized as the best text-book of Slovak, to cover the first elemenit. Hrobak's Lessons gradually teaches the language, by use of the following sections and titles: voca:bulary, expressions, grammar, exercises, reading lessons, reviews, et<:. The other element, the various cultures, would be integrated with the lessons, and be presented by means of verbal explanations, pi,otures, selected words and exipressions (where possible), exercises and reading lessons from their national literatures (transliterated into Slovak), etc. Successive lessons could introduce such topics as these: The Slav race, the Christianization of the Slavic peoples, the submerged Slavs, the Slavic nations; then individual countries: the Slovaks, Rusins, Czechs, Poles, etc.; even the fringe naJtions: the Rumanians, Lithuanians. Particular subjedts could also be presented, such as: the General Characteristics of Slav Art, Temperament, etc. Finally, to the book several appendices could be added: one giving the Russian (and Old Slovanic) alphabet(s) and the equivalent in western script; another showing the various letter marks, like r, z, I, u, and their SfoV'ak transliterations; and then, a very valuable appendix showing somE key differences between Slovak and the other Slovanic languages: v. g. stating the rule where Polish uses w or g for Slovak v or h, where Czech has v and r for Slovak 1 and r, and the like. This last appendix would be a crowning offering of the grammar, making it possible for the energet,ic pupil to master to some extent all the Slovanic languages at once by means of these differences. rn conclusion, I admit that I am not an expert in the Slavic tongues, but it appears to me that the "High-School �12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations � SLOVAKIA 7 SLOV ANICS IN AMERICAN SEOONDARY SCHOOLS William S. Patala That the Slavic languages are not taught in our American schools - in our high schools especially, but also in our colleges and even grade schools - is a sad fact which is lately coming around to admitting this deficiency, and the need for a remedy; public opinion is stirring in a similar vein; and some statesmen are speaking up for a new progra;m to rectify the absence of courses in the Slav languages in our educational system. These groups are moved by a realization not only of the world position in which communism puts the Slovanic nations it controls, but also by an awareness of the rising prominence of these nations in the 20th century irrespective of that totalitariain regime, and then too by a recognition of the ever-increasing volume of travel and tourism, which is making contact - and will make contact much more when the Iron Curtain rises - witih the eastern half of Europe, the Slav world, as never before. 'Dhese considerations and others, are pressing more and more for Americans to learn a Slavic tongue a-s their second language. Of course, all ethnic groups of rectn immigration, including the Slovaks to be sure, have a long time recognized the value of American youths learning foreign languages, although each nationality insisted, as might be expected, on their own as the first to be learned. And these peoples, especially the Catholics among them because of their private schools, have tried to teach their descendants in America the ancestral tongue - at least to the first and second generation, where there was still living contact with the spoken foreign language. But these efforts of national groups are on the wane, so that if American youths are to learn a European language, and especially a Slavic one, it will have to be through the instrumentality of the regular American high schools. These schools already have in .their curricula the other European vernaculars: German, French, Spanish, but they do not have Slavic. �8 SLOVAKIA What Slavic Language? If our high schools should decid~ to introduce the Siovanic languages into their courses, however - and rising pressure may wen move them to do so soon - they will have to solve one outstanding difficulity which presents itself immediately. This difficulty must be settled before the composition of a text book oon even be undertaken. And that problem is, namely, which Slav language shall be taught? For O'bviously they cannot aJII be taught, since ther are some nine prominent ones. So the question is which one should be singled out for this honorable use. The first answer that presents itself is Russian. This is by far the largest Slavic tongue in use, and Russia naturally seems to be the mother of all the Slovanic naitions. Bult Russia has never filled thus "natural" position of a mother: whether communist or czarist, her interest in the other Slav countries has always been selfish. Although all these nations would each raise an objection to the choice of every language except their own, nevertheless their strongest dbjection would be to the use of Russian, since their feeling for Russia extends in genera!l from mistrust to hatred, the latter especially by Poland and the Ukraine. Other dif:filculties also attend t:Jhe use of Russian, above all the strange alphabet, then borrowed and original words, and again the oriental and Orthodox culture of that country, etc. This writer would recommend as the basic language to be taughrt in a course of "High School Sfovanics" the use of the Slovak tongue. My choice of Slovak for this highly-representative position stands on three arguments of varying force : First, a negative argument, whfoh is equally valid for the use of any O'f the Stavic tongues (except a fringe language like Rumanian) ; this proof is intended to show why Slovak should not be excluded by a prior judgment; and it is this, that any Slavic tongue is a key to all of them. Consider how similar the viarious - we could almost call them dialects - of the Slav race are, from the following selections. If you know Slovak well, you will easily enough gather the thought of each quotiation: �SLOVAKIA 9 (1) (Ruthenian or Rusin): "0 Bohorodice D'ivo Marije, radujsja, raduj nebes lelije. Solncem pribranna, vkryta duhoju, Marije cista, Hospod's Toboju." (2) (Church or Old Slovanic, or Bulgarian): (InternationaJ alpha) : "Pri:z;ri na mja i pomilum mja. Da priblicitsja molitva moja pred fa Hospodi, po slovesi tvojemu vrazumi mja." (3) (Czech): "Za tri tisice roku, ach, co tu bude Zmen, a co tu bude skoku pres hroby slavnych jmen !" (4) (Polish): "Jezeli domu sam Pan nie zbuluje, Daremnie nad nim rzemieslnik pracuje. Jok od pocz~tku byla tak i ninie, I na wiek wiekow niechaj zawsze slynie." (5) (Slovenian: "Sedaj prosi ljubega Boga, naj Ti odpusti vse Tvoje grehe, ki si se jih spovedal, a tudi grehe vsega Tvojega zivljenja." (6) (Croatian and Serbian): (International script) : "Pricekajte jedan minut. Gde su vojnici? Drago mi je poznati vas. Molim vas pomozite mi." (7) (Ukrainian): (International alphabet): "V nasich cerkvach je zvicaj otvirati dveri na pocatku Bozestvennoji Liturgiji." (8) (White Rusian): "Kaznamu, chto hetak vyjavic usie svaje hrachii klo jon scyra za ich zaleje, mozna dac sakramentalnaje razihresennie." (9) (Russian): (International alphabet) : "So mnoju liudi bez imion." Secondly, a practical reason for my picking Slovak as the one language to be taught is a Slovanic grammar. Since I am doing the selecting, I naturally choose the lianguage most familiar and most dear to me. This is Slovak. But finally, the conclusive argument, that shows Slovak to be the ideal tongue for use in a text book of Slovanics is its unique position in connection with all the Slavic tongues. Slovak is the one language best understood by all the Slav peoples! This is so because it has the closest relations with all the other Slavic vernaculars as any of them has: most words in common, most letters and constructions in common, least foreign additions, least changes of its own. Note the words of Professor John D. Prince of Columbia University in the News Bulletin of the Amer- �10 SLOVAKIA ican Association of Teachers of Slovanic and East European Lianguages, Dec. 15, 1943: "Of the nine principal Slovanic variants (Rus., Wh. Rus., Ukr., Cz., Pol., Serb., Croat. and Bulg.) Slovak contains the greatest number of forms common to all ... . To apply the pragmatic test, Slovak is of all the Slovanic tongues the most readily understood by other Slavs." And H. L. Menchken says in The American Language: "A peasant from Sfovakia enjoying the benefit of a central position in the Slavonic territory, is understood by a Slav from any other country." Therefore, in the words of the great reformer of the Slovak language, I',udovit Stur (1814-1856): "Slovak appears to us as a distinct and separate language, without which it would be impracticable to formulate a comparative grammar of Slavic tongues, because it forms a connecting link between them all." The Integration of the Basic Language With Elements of the Other Slav Tongues Now, having settled this problem regaroing the choice of one basic language - be it Slovak or some other we should next consider all the various elements which would combine to make the text book reaMy a Slovanic grammar, and not a grammar only of the language it features. Besides teaching the student one language, which is ,a key to all thke Slavic tongues, the Slovanic grammar would acquaint him with the various languages in other ways also. While presenting only one tongue, it would also give knowledge of the other Slavic nations and cultures. Thus it would be a genuine (and feasible, we think) compromise between all the tongues, which, as we have said, is impracticable, and teaching only one, which is too limited and insufficient, by itself. The SloV'anic text book would present the basic language completely; its declensions, conjugations, syntax, vocabulary, but at the same time it would also present the history of the Slavic race, a description of the individual nations with their geography and statistics, the salient points of their literature, music, art, and even some excerpts from their poetry and prose. In this way, the student would have a working mastery of one Slav language, through it a key to all the Slav tongues, and an under- �SLOVAKIA 11 standing of the position, history and culture of each nation. What better acquaintance than this could a person hope to have with nine languages, without studying each one of the individually? Let us consider in detail how these two elements: the one language and the various cultures, would appear in our S'lovanics book. The basic language would be presented pretty much th€ way it is in any (Siovak) grammar. We might, for this purpose, take Hrobak's Slovak Lessons, which is recognized as the best text-book of Slovak, to cover the first elemenit. Hrobak's Lessons gradually teaches the language, by use of the following sections and titles: voca:bulary, expressions, grammar, exercises, reading lessons, reviews, et<:. The other element, the various cultures, would be integrated with the lessons, and be presented by means of verbal explanations, pi,otures, selected words and exipressions (where possible), exercises and reading lessons from their national literatures (transliterated into Slovak), etc. Successive lessons could introduce such topics as these: The Slav race, the Christianization of the Slavic peoples, the submerged Slavs, the Slavic nations; then individual countries: the Slovaks, Rusins, Czechs, Poles, etc.; even the fringe naJtions: the Rumanians, Lithuanians. Particular subjedts could also be presented, such as: the General Characteristics of Slav Art, Temperament, etc. Finally, to the book several appendices could be added: one giving the Russian (and Old Slovanic) alphabet(s) and the equivalent in western script; another showing the various letter marks, like r, z, I, u, and their SfoV'ak transliterations; and then, a very valuable appendix showing somE key differences between Slovak and the other Slovanic languages: v. g. stating the rule where Polish uses w or g for Slovak v or h, where Czech has v and r for Slovak 1 and r, and the like. This last appendix would be a crowning offering of the grammar, making it possible for the energet,ic pupil to master to some extent all the Slovanic languages at once by means of these differences. rn conclusion, I admit that I am not an expert in the Slavic tongues, but it appears to me that the "High-School �12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 7 SLOV ANICS IN AMERICAN SEOONDARY SCHOOLS William S. Patala That the Slavic languages are not taught in our American schools - in our high schools especially, but also in our colleges and even grade schools - is a sad fact which is lately coming around to admitting this deficiency, and the need for a remedy; public opinion is stirring in a similar vein; and some statesmen are speaking up for a new progra;m to rectify the absence of courses in the Slav languages in our educational system. These groups are moved by a realization not only of the world position in which communism puts the Slovanic nations it controls, but also by an awareness of the rising prominence of these nations in the 20th century irrespective of that totalitariain regime, and then too by a recognition of the ever-increasing volume of travel and tourism, which is making contact - and will make contact much more when the Iron Curtain rises - witih the eastern half of Europe, the Slav world, as never before. 'Dhese considerations and others, are pressing more and more for Americans to learn a Slavic tongue a-s their second language. Of course, all ethnic groups of rectn immigration, including the Slovaks to be sure, have a long time recognized the value of American youths learning foreign languages, although each nationality insisted, as might be expected, on their own as the first to be learned. And these peoples, especially the Catholics among them because of their private schools, have tried to teach their descendants in America the ancestral tongue - at least to the first and second generation, where there was still living contact with the spoken foreign language. But these efforts of national groups are on the wane, so that if American youths are to learn a European language, and especially a Slavic one, it will have to be through the instrumentality of the regular American high schools. These schools already have in .their curricula the other European vernaculars: German, French, Spanish, but they do not have Slavic. 8 SLOVAKIA What Slavic Language? If our high schools should decid~ to introduce the Siovanic languages into their courses, however - and rising pressure may wen move them to do so soon - they will have to solve one outstanding difficulity which presents itself immediately. This difficulty must be settled before the composition of a text book oon even be undertaken. And that problem is, namely, which Slav language shall be taught? For O'bviously they cannot aJII be taught, since ther are some nine prominent ones. So the question is which one should be singled out for this honorable use. The first answer that presents itself is Russian. This is by far the largest Slavic tongue in use, and Russia naturally seems to be the mother of all the Slovanic naitions. Bult Russia has never filled thus "natural" position of a mother: whether communist or czarist, her interest in the other Slav countries has always been selfish. Although all these nations would each raise an objection to the choice of every language except their own, nevertheless their strongest dbjection would be to the use of Russian, since their feeling for Russia extends in genera!l from mistrust to hatred, the latter especially by Poland and the Ukraine. Other dif:filculties also attend t:Jhe use of Russian, above all the strange alphabet, then borrowed and original words, and again the oriental and Orthodox culture of that country, etc. This writer would recommend as the basic language to be taughrt in a course of "High School Sfovanics" the use of the Slovak tongue. My choice of Slovak for this highly-representative position stands on three arguments of varying force : First, a negative argument, whfoh is equally valid for the use of any O'f the Stavic tongues (except a fringe language like Rumanian) ; this proof is intended to show why Slovak should not be excluded by a prior judgment; and it is this, that any Slavic tongue is a key to all of them. Consider how similar the viarious - we could almost call them dialects - of the Slav race are, from the following selections. If you know Slovak well, you will easily enough gather the thought of each quotiation: SLOVAKIA 9 (1) (Ruthenian or Rusin): "0 Bohorodice D'ivo Marije, radujsja, raduj nebes lelije. Solncem pribranna, vkryta duhoju, Marije cista, Hospod's Toboju." (2) (Church or Old Slovanic, or Bulgarian): (InternationaJ alpha) : "Pri:z;ri na mja i pomilum mja. Da priblicitsja molitva moja pred fa Hospodi, po slovesi tvojemu vrazumi mja." (3) (Czech): "Za tri tisice roku, ach, co tu bude Zmen, a co tu bude skoku pres hroby slavnych jmen !" (4) (Polish): "Jezeli domu sam Pan nie zbuluje, Daremnie nad nim rzemieslnik pracuje. Jok od pocz~tku byla tak i ninie, I na wiek wiekow niechaj zawsze slynie." (5) (Slovenian: "Sedaj prosi ljubega Boga, naj Ti odpusti vse Tvoje grehe, ki si se jih spovedal, a tudi grehe vsega Tvojega zivljenja." (6) (Croatian and Serbian): (International script) : "Pricekajte jedan minut. Gde su vojnici? Drago mi je poznati vas. Molim vas pomozite mi." (7) (Ukrainian): (International alphabet): "V nasich cerkvach je zvicaj otvirati dveri na pocatku Bozestvennoji Liturgiji." (8) (White Rusian): "Kaznamu, chto hetak vyjavic usie svaje hrachii klo jon scyra za ich zaleje, mozna dac sakramentalnaje razihresennie." (9) (Russian): (International alphabet) : "So mnoju liudi bez imion." Secondly, a practical reason for my picking Slovak as the one language to be taught is a Slovanic grammar. Since I am doing the selecting, I naturally choose the lianguage most familiar and most dear to me. This is Slovak. But finally, the conclusive argument, that shows Slovak to be the ideal tongue for use in a text book of Slovanics is its unique position in connection with all the Slavic tongues. Slovak is the one language best understood by all the Slav peoples! This is so because it has the closest relations with all the other Slavic vernaculars as any of them has: most words in common, most letters and constructions in common, least foreign additions, least changes of its own. Note the words of Professor John D. Prince of Columbia University in the News Bulletin of the Amer- 10 SLOVAKIA ican Association of Teachers of Slovanic and East European Lianguages, Dec. 15, 1943: "Of the nine principal Slovanic variants (Rus., Wh. Rus., Ukr., Cz., Pol., Serb., Croat. and Bulg.) Slovak contains the greatest number of forms common to all ... . To apply the pragmatic test, Slovak is of all the Slovanic tongues the most readily understood by other Slavs." And H. L. Menchken says in The American Language: "A peasant from Sfovakia enjoying the benefit of a central position in the Slavonic territory, is understood by a Slav from any other country." Therefore, in the words of the great reformer of the Slovak language, I',udovit Stur (1814-1856): "Slovak appears to us as a distinct and separate language, without which it would be impracticable to formulate a comparative grammar of Slavic tongues, because it forms a connecting link between them all." The Integration of the Basic Language With Elements of the Other Slav Tongues Now, having settled this problem regaroing the choice of one basic language - be it Slovak or some other we should next consider all the various elements which would combine to make the text book reaMy a Slovanic grammar, and not a grammar only of the language it features. Besides teaching the student one language, which is ,a key to all thke Slavic tongues, the Slovanic grammar would acquaint him with the various languages in other ways also. While presenting only one tongue, it would also give knowledge of the other Slavic nations and cultures. Thus it would be a genuine (and feasible, we think) compromise between all the tongues, which, as we have said, is impracticable, and teaching only one, which is too limited and insufficient, by itself. The SloV'anic text book would present the basic language completely; its declensions, conjugations, syntax, vocabulary, but at the same time it would also present the history of the Slavic race, a description of the individual nations with their geography and statistics, the salient points of their literature, music, art, and even some excerpts from their poetry and prose. In this way, the student would have a working mastery of one Slav language, through it a key to all the Slav tongues, and an under- SLOVAKIA 11 standing of the position, history and culture of each nation. What better acquaintance than this could a person hope to have with nine languages, without studying each one of the individually? Let us consider in detail how these two elements: the one language and the various cultures, would appear in our S'lovanics book. The basic language would be presented pretty much th€ way it is in any (Siovak) grammar. We might, for this purpose, take Hrobak's Slovak Lessons, which is recognized as the best text-book of Slovak, to cover the first elemenit. Hrobak's Lessons gradually teaches the language, by use of the following sections and titles: voca:bulary, expressions, grammar, exercises, reading lessons, reviews, et<:. The other element, the various cultures, would be integrated with the lessons, and be presented by means of verbal explanations, pi,otures, selected words and exipressions (where possible), exercises and reading lessons from their national literatures (transliterated into Slovak), etc. Successive lessons could introduce such topics as these: The Slav race, the Christianization of the Slavic peoples, the submerged Slavs, the Slavic nations; then individual countries: the Slovaks, Rusins, Czechs, Poles, etc.; even the fringe naJtions: the Rumanians, Lithuanians. Particular subjedts could also be presented, such as: the General Characteristics of Slav Art, Temperament, etc. Finally, to the book several appendices could be added: one giving the Russian (and Old Slovanic) alphabet(s) and the equivalent in western script; another showing the various letter marks, like r, z, I, u, and their SfoV'ak transliterations; and then, a very valuable appendix showing somE key differences between Slovak and the other Slovanic languages: v. g. stating the rule where Polish uses w or g for Slovak v or h, where Czech has v and r for Slovak 1 and r, and the like. This last appendix would be a crowning offering of the grammar, making it possible for the energet,ic pupil to master to some extent all the Slovanic languages at once by means of these differences. rn conclusion, I admit that I am not an expert in the Slavic tongues, but it appears to me that the "High-School 12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovanics in American Secondary Schools Description An account of the resource William S. Patala Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 7-12 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Patala, William S. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a969fe086d944834d00d86c394adb7d6.pdf 5a0f99039785ac20100e32fe7783d738 PDF Text Text 12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations �SLOVAKIA 13 in his country. His voyage to Moscow had been prepared long before by his chief advisor, the late Hubert Ripka. Speaking over the Moscow broadcasting system on December 21, 1943, Dr. Benes declared: "In 1938 we were deserted by the Western Democracies and then subjugated by the Nazis; only the Soviet Union remained faithful to us." That was not true. Benes knew very well that in 1938 the Soviets had refused to give any precise answer to the Czecho-Slovak High Command's request for military aid in the eventuality of war with Hitler Germany. He also accompanied this false strutement by another declaration which can be regarded as the core of his policy. He said: "This journey of mine is the necessary result, the logical conclusion, and the final evolutionary achievement of the Czech policy of the last hundred years, a result made possible by the Russian revolution of the last war." Beware of ideologists who consider their achievements as final. Benes was not satisfied with placing himself in the service of the Krem1lin. Although perfectly aware of the mass graves of Polish officers murdered by the Bolshevists in Katyn in 1944, he persuaded Stanislaus Mikolajczyk to quit the legitimate Polish exile government in London and to join the puppet government set up by the Soviets in Lublin, Eastern Poland. This adventure ended in Mikolajczyk's flight to the West in 1947. Most of Benes' aides were enthusiastic members of the Socialist avant-garde. Hubert Ripka, the most cunning among them, had already developed a far-reaching program which he published in England in 1945 entitled "Czechoslovakia in the New Europe." "Our alliance with the Soviet Union," he declared, "requires a new orientation of our cultural policy; it is necessary that all anti-Soviet elements be eliminated from our schools, educational institutions, and from our literature." Ripka's best disciple, Ivo Duchacek, went even further, saying in his book "Along the Road to Moscow" (London 1944): "This immense conflagration is far more than a flickering flame on which people could warm their soup, people who, until yesterday, had made a career out of criticizing Lenin's interpretation of Marx." �14 SLOVAKIA Benes Moves to Moscow Early in H)45 Benes made his final decision. Accompanied by Jari Sramek and the other ministers of his ca:binet he moved from London to Moscow preferring to reenter his country with the Red Army rather than with the Western liberation troops. In Moscow Benes' star began to decline. He had to nominate a new cabinet in which staunch communists held the key positions. The Soviets were probably not quite sure yet of Czecho-Slovakia. They had freed General Prchala's troops from the concentration camps and sent them, under the command of a man named Svoboda, to the Dukla Pass in the Ca:r,pathians. There most of these young Czech soldiers found their death. But the Soviets still wanted Benes' help. They used the first stop t!he provisional Czecho~lovak Government had to make on Czecho-Slovak soil in the wake of the Red Army, to proclaim a political manifesto that bound Benes and his friends even closer to Moscow than the treaty of 1943. The Kosice Program The Kosice Program, as th:is manifesto is usually called, achieved two things with one stroke: It set the Communist P.arity on its way to final domination of Czecho-Slovakia and it committed the non-Communist members of the Government to help the Communists achieve this aim. It also enacted a decision which had been taken by the Benes group as early as 1943 in London: the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as well as of the Magyarspeaking population of Czecho-Slovakia. Later we were to pay dearly for this blindness. One thing was o·bvious from the very beginning t o any reader of the Kosice program : it was directed against the Czecho-Slovak constitution of 1920. Everyone who had signed it could, according to the laws of the Republic, have been summoned before a court and condemned for high treason. The two parits of the document which were most obviously undemocratic were those concerned with the nationalization of basic industry and the ban of nonCommunist or non-Socialist political parties. �SLOVAKIA 15 The announcemen t of the program caused much anxiety throughout the country. But the note of triumph of Socialist propaganda became louder and louder as the President approached Prague and culminated in his message to the provisional Parliament whose members were all appointed by Dr. Benes, and which had .assembled in Prague on October 28, 1945. "Today," tlhe message read, "we are betaking ourselves along a path which is to lead to the socialization of modern society." The President wholehearted ly endorsed the Kosice program. Secret Police Early Established Immediately after liberation, poiice forces, the SNB, the STB, and the ZOB, organized throughout the country under the auspices of .the Red Army, were to solve thd problems. Any,body arrested by them could have been retained ind~inljtely. Those beaten to death in the prison cells or deported to Siberia have left no traces. Democratic politidans, such as Ivan Micura, a prominent Slovak who had constantly opposed the Nazi domina,tion of Central Europe~ were arrested in their homes, deported to Russia and never heard from a,gain. Gradually the immense police apparatus turned its energies to "prdblems of socialization." Afl persons who possessed some property were put on a list of suspicious persons. The following document gives a good illustration of this process: "Recorded on September 12, 1945, at 1100 hours in the office of the District National Committee in Novy Bydzov. "The Chairman of the District National Committee of Novy Bydzov, in accordance with orders received from the Minister of Food Supply, Mr. Vaclav Majer, and the Provincial National Committee, issues the following order to Ladislav Stulik, milrler in Hradisko: "I order you to revoke, at not later than 4 p. m. of this day, the complaints which you have submitted to the district· court of justice on behalf of the millers' union; if you should not comply with this order I shall have you arrested at 6 p. m. I also order you to refrain from any �16 SLOVAKIA participation in public life. The police measures mentioned above will also be applied to the members of your family, if you do not comply with this order." "Gestapoism" At the same time a wave of cruel hatred travelled from one individual to another. Perhaps the majority of the Czechs were suddenly ready to suspect, to denounce, to arrest, and to torture their neighbors. In a town in eastern Bohemia a group of local intellectuals used to assemble every night at a given hour and to pay a visit to the district jail where hundreds of people, suspected of · collaboration with the Nazis during the war, were imprisoned. There they amused themselves until the small hours by beating the prisoners with sticks and ropes. This willingness to do evil spread as an infectious disease. Someone called it "gestapoism." Its victims were in the first place the Sudeten Germans. Outrages were committed such as the tragic march of death of 60,000 German speaking inhabitants of Brno, the capital of Moravia, from that city to the Austrian border - a march during which about half of the victims miserably perished. But the same cruelties were committed by the Czechs also against other Czechs. In places such as the Pankrac prison in Prague or the Kounicovy Koleje in Brno, people who had been denounced by their neighbors were, without any investigation at all, machinegunned by hundreds every night and buried in common graves. It was on the dirty floor of a Pankrac prison cell that death came to Emil Ha.cha, former President of Czechoslovakia, a great scholar and gentleman whose only concern had been the welfare of his nation. One of the prisoners, who was lucky enough to endure the tortures and to stay alive, relates his memories: "I saw bodies with demolished faces and without eyes, heaps of bodies of men, women, and even children. I have heard jailors reading names from a list of those who were to be set free, but who had already died of starvation days before and whose bodies I myself was forced to remove from our crowded prison cells. Twice a week I had to help load �SLOVAKIA 17 trucks with such corpses, --corpses of those who were investigated but never reached a court of justice. I saw with my own eyes a prisoner who had been prepared for an investigation, have his legs pierced above the heels, a rope placed through the holes, and then suspended on a hook in the wall. This torture, it is true, did not last long, but when, after three years, the prisoner in question was set free, the investigators were still unable to define the charges a!;ainst him." No wonder that, when the weekly paper "0bzory" was started by the Czech People's Party in Prague, one of the first articles submitted to the editors by a young girl, Renata J., was a treatise on fear. "We are a generation of fear," she wrote in her manuscript, "we live in fear, we eat in fear, fear devours our thoughts, our words - words which we do no dare to utter... " Such was the real Czecho-Slovakia of 1945, when Dr. Benes was its President. People were ousted from their jobs, their lodgings. Their properties were confiscated. And they were unable to appeal to the law. Little wonder, then, that the Communists made easy game of Czecho-Slovakia . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We can only repeat ,t hat neither Austria nor Hungary, and prolba/bly not even Gerunany, nor even the Sfovaks, woulld a•cce,pt in the '.l10ng rlllil tlhe existence of Czechoslovakia. Therefore the grafting of Ozeohoslova!kia on to a Danubian federation is hardly possjlble. In such a framewwk she wou1.d si1mply continue to be what she was in her prevti.ous existence : an internaitiona:l oolamity. The position would ibe di,f. ferent in the case of Bohemia and Moravia being separated from Slovakia. The O!ften repeated argument that Czecihoslovakia',s 'breaking up into her natural components would cause an even greaiter dislocation in the Daruufbe Basin, fails to convince, if one realizes ,that such a parution is the essentia1l iprerequisilte of the •o reation of a greater State entity." - F. 0. Miiksche - a Czech - in UNC0NlDITIONAL SURRENDER, pp. 216-216; Falber and Faiber, Ltd., London). � 12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations �SLOVAKIA 13 in his country. His voyage to Moscow had been prepared long before by his chief advisor, the late Hubert Ripka. Speaking over the Moscow broadcasting system on December 21, 1943, Dr. Benes declared: "In 1938 we were deserted by the Western Democracies and then subjugated by the Nazis; only the Soviet Union remained faithful to us." That was not true. Benes knew very well that in 1938 the Soviets had refused to give any precise answer to the Czecho-Slovak High Command's request for military aid in the eventuality of war with Hitler Germany. He also accompanied this false strutement by another declaration which can be regarded as the core of his policy. He said: "This journey of mine is the necessary result, the logical conclusion, and the final evolutionary achievement of the Czech policy of the last hundred years, a result made possible by the Russian revolution of the last war." Beware of ideologists who consider their achievements as final. Benes was not satisfied with placing himself in the service of the Krem1lin. Although perfectly aware of the mass graves of Polish officers murdered by the Bolshevists in Katyn in 1944, he persuaded Stanislaus Mikolajczyk to quit the legitimate Polish exile government in London and to join the puppet government set up by the Soviets in Lublin, Eastern Poland. This adventure ended in Mikolajczyk's flight to the West in 1947. Most of Benes' aides were enthusiastic members of the Socialist avant-garde. Hubert Ripka, the most cunning among them, had already developed a far-reaching program which he published in England in 1945 entitled "Czechoslovakia in the New Europe." "Our alliance with the Soviet Union," he declared, "requires a new orientation of our cultural policy; it is necessary that all anti-Soviet elements be eliminated from our schools, educational institutions, and from our literature." Ripka's best disciple, Ivo Duchacek, went even further, saying in his book "Along the Road to Moscow" (London 1944): "This immense conflagration is far more than a flickering flame on which people could warm their soup, people who, until yesterday, had made a career out of criticizing Lenin's interpretation of Marx." �14 SLOVAKIA Benes Moves to Moscow Early in H)45 Benes made his final decision. Accompanied by Jari Sramek and the other ministers of his ca:binet he moved from London to Moscow preferring to reenter his country with the Red Army rather than with the Western liberation troops. In Moscow Benes' star began to decline. He had to nominate a new cabinet in which staunch communists held the key positions. The Soviets were probably not quite sure yet of Czecho-Slovakia. They had freed General Prchala's troops from the concentration camps and sent them, under the command of a man named Svoboda, to the Dukla Pass in the Ca:r,pathians. There most of these young Czech soldiers found their death. But the Soviets still wanted Benes' help. They used the first stop t!he provisional Czecho~lovak Government had to make on Czecho-Slovak soil in the wake of the Red Army, to proclaim a political manifesto that bound Benes and his friends even closer to Moscow than the treaty of 1943. The Kosice Program The Kosice Program, as th:is manifesto is usually called, achieved two things with one stroke: It set the Communist P.arity on its way to final domination of Czecho-Slovakia and it committed the non-Communist members of the Government to help the Communists achieve this aim. It also enacted a decision which had been taken by the Benes group as early as 1943 in London: the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as well as of the Magyarspeaking population of Czecho-Slovakia. Later we were to pay dearly for this blindness. One thing was o·bvious from the very beginning t o any reader of the Kosice program : it was directed against the Czecho-Slovak constitution of 1920. Everyone who had signed it could, according to the laws of the Republic, have been summoned before a court and condemned for high treason. The two parits of the document which were most obviously undemocratic were those concerned with the nationalization of basic industry and the ban of nonCommunist or non-Socialist political parties. �SLOVAKIA 15 The announcemen t of the program caused much anxiety throughout the country. But the note of triumph of Socialist propaganda became louder and louder as the President approached Prague and culminated in his message to the provisional Parliament whose members were all appointed by Dr. Benes, and which had .assembled in Prague on October 28, 1945. "Today," tlhe message read, "we are betaking ourselves along a path which is to lead to the socialization of modern society." The President wholehearted ly endorsed the Kosice program. Secret Police Early Established Immediately after liberation, poiice forces, the SNB, the STB, and the ZOB, organized throughout the country under the auspices of .the Red Army, were to solve thd problems. Any,body arrested by them could have been retained ind~inljtely. Those beaten to death in the prison cells or deported to Siberia have left no traces. Democratic politidans, such as Ivan Micura, a prominent Slovak who had constantly opposed the Nazi domina,tion of Central Europe~ were arrested in their homes, deported to Russia and never heard from a,gain. Gradually the immense police apparatus turned its energies to "prdblems of socialization." Afl persons who possessed some property were put on a list of suspicious persons. The following document gives a good illustration of this process: "Recorded on September 12, 1945, at 1100 hours in the office of the District National Committee in Novy Bydzov. "The Chairman of the District National Committee of Novy Bydzov, in accordance with orders received from the Minister of Food Supply, Mr. Vaclav Majer, and the Provincial National Committee, issues the following order to Ladislav Stulik, milrler in Hradisko: "I order you to revoke, at not later than 4 p. m. of this day, the complaints which you have submitted to the district· court of justice on behalf of the millers' union; if you should not comply with this order I shall have you arrested at 6 p. m. I also order you to refrain from any �16 SLOVAKIA participation in public life. The police measures mentioned above will also be applied to the members of your family, if you do not comply with this order." "Gestapoism" At the same time a wave of cruel hatred travelled from one individual to another. Perhaps the majority of the Czechs were suddenly ready to suspect, to denounce, to arrest, and to torture their neighbors. In a town in eastern Bohemia a group of local intellectuals used to assemble every night at a given hour and to pay a visit to the district jail where hundreds of people, suspected of · collaboration with the Nazis during the war, were imprisoned. There they amused themselves until the small hours by beating the prisoners with sticks and ropes. This willingness to do evil spread as an infectious disease. Someone called it "gestapoism." Its victims were in the first place the Sudeten Germans. Outrages were committed such as the tragic march of death of 60,000 German speaking inhabitants of Brno, the capital of Moravia, from that city to the Austrian border - a march during which about half of the victims miserably perished. But the same cruelties were committed by the Czechs also against other Czechs. In places such as the Pankrac prison in Prague or the Kounicovy Koleje in Brno, people who had been denounced by their neighbors were, without any investigation at all, machinegunned by hundreds every night and buried in common graves. It was on the dirty floor of a Pankrac prison cell that death came to Emil Ha.cha, former President of Czechoslovakia, a great scholar and gentleman whose only concern had been the welfare of his nation. One of the prisoners, who was lucky enough to endure the tortures and to stay alive, relates his memories: "I saw bodies with demolished faces and without eyes, heaps of bodies of men, women, and even children. I have heard jailors reading names from a list of those who were to be set free, but who had already died of starvation days before and whose bodies I myself was forced to remove from our crowded prison cells. Twice a week I had to help load �SLOVAKIA 17 trucks with such corpses, --corpses of those who were investigated but never reached a court of justice. I saw with my own eyes a prisoner who had been prepared for an investigation, have his legs pierced above the heels, a rope placed through the holes, and then suspended on a hook in the wall. This torture, it is true, did not last long, but when, after three years, the prisoner in question was set free, the investigators were still unable to define the charges a!;ainst him." No wonder that, when the weekly paper "0bzory" was started by the Czech People's Party in Prague, one of the first articles submitted to the editors by a young girl, Renata J., was a treatise on fear. "We are a generation of fear," she wrote in her manuscript, "we live in fear, we eat in fear, fear devours our thoughts, our words - words which we do no dare to utter... " Such was the real Czecho-Slovakia of 1945, when Dr. Benes was its President. People were ousted from their jobs, their lodgings. Their properties were confiscated. And they were unable to appeal to the law. Little wonder, then, that the Communists made easy game of Czecho-Slovakia . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We can only repeat ,t hat neither Austria nor Hungary, and prolba/bly not even Gerunany, nor even the Sfovaks, woulld a•cce,pt in the '.l10ng rlllil tlhe existence of Czechoslovakia. Therefore the grafting of Ozeohoslova!kia on to a Danubian federation is hardly possjlble. In such a framewwk she wou1.d si1mply continue to be what she was in her prevti.ous existence : an internaitiona:l oolamity. The position would ibe di,f. ferent in the case of Bohemia and Moravia being separated from Slovakia. The O!ften repeated argument that Czecihoslovakia',s 'breaking up into her natural components would cause an even greaiter dislocation in the Daruufbe Basin, fails to convince, if one realizes ,that such a parution is the essentia1l iprerequisilte of the •o reation of a greater State entity." - F. 0. Miiksche - a Czech - in UNC0NlDITIONAL SURRENDER, pp. 216-216; Falber and Faiber, Ltd., London). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 12 SLOVAKIA Slovanics" grammar is a real possibility. I believe that it could be drawn up along the lines presented in this article. Of course, it would require the careful, studious efforts of someone well acquainted with the Slovanic languages or at least with one of them. But I feel it can be done. At least the possibility should be explored and an attempt made in .that direction. Perhaps if we Slovaks ignore this project, some one of our kindred Slavs may take it up, using his tongue instead of ours as the basis. The Slav languages certainly should be taught in our schools. But if they are to be, a Slovanic grammar is needed. Slovak can offer itself as the key ingredient in such a book, since it possesses the qualirty of representatives among the Slavic vernaculars. What is requisite, therefore, is a recognition of the needs for and feasibility of a "High School Slovanics" book, and then the efforts of our Slovak-American intelligentsia to prepare it. In this way, the great culture of our tiny nation would make still another contribution to the advancement of world knowledge and culture. - (MOST," Vol. 5, No. 2) . • • • THE BIRTH OF A SATELLITE By Bohdan Chudoba (It is ofiten maintained that Czecho-Slovaikiia became a s·a tellite of Moscow in February, 1948, when the communists gained full power in Prague. In the following article Pr<Yfessor Bohdan Chudio'ba of New York, a noted historian and forimer leading Czech -politician, very clearly -i lluminates the Czecho-Slovaik situation after World War II and the disastrous role that Czecho~ovaikia's foruner President Edward Benes played when, long before '1'94'8, he paved the way for the commun,ist seizure o,f full power in '1948.) When leading statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Teheran in 1943 and President Roosevelt ha,d to decide whether or not to support ChurchiH's plan to invade the Balkans and keep the Red Army out of Central Europe, the conference had the spectacle of Edward Benes journeying solemnly from London to Moscow where, on December 12, he signed a new treaty between Czecho-Slovalda and the Soviet Union, binding himself and his (provisional) government to dissolve all "anti-communist organizations SLOVAKIA 13 in his country. His voyage to Moscow had been prepared long before by his chief advisor, the late Hubert Ripka. Speaking over the Moscow broadcasting system on December 21, 1943, Dr. Benes declared: "In 1938 we were deserted by the Western Democracies and then subjugated by the Nazis; only the Soviet Union remained faithful to us." That was not true. Benes knew very well that in 1938 the Soviets had refused to give any precise answer to the Czecho-Slovak High Command's request for military aid in the eventuality of war with Hitler Germany. He also accompanied this false strutement by another declaration which can be regarded as the core of his policy. He said: "This journey of mine is the necessary result, the logical conclusion, and the final evolutionary achievement of the Czech policy of the last hundred years, a result made possible by the Russian revolution of the last war." Beware of ideologists who consider their achievements as final. Benes was not satisfied with placing himself in the service of the Krem1lin. Although perfectly aware of the mass graves of Polish officers murdered by the Bolshevists in Katyn in 1944, he persuaded Stanislaus Mikolajczyk to quit the legitimate Polish exile government in London and to join the puppet government set up by the Soviets in Lublin, Eastern Poland. This adventure ended in Mikolajczyk's flight to the West in 1947. Most of Benes' aides were enthusiastic members of the Socialist avant-garde. Hubert Ripka, the most cunning among them, had already developed a far-reaching program which he published in England in 1945 entitled "Czechoslovakia in the New Europe." "Our alliance with the Soviet Union," he declared, "requires a new orientation of our cultural policy; it is necessary that all anti-Soviet elements be eliminated from our schools, educational institutions, and from our literature." Ripka's best disciple, Ivo Duchacek, went even further, saying in his book "Along the Road to Moscow" (London 1944): "This immense conflagration is far more than a flickering flame on which people could warm their soup, people who, until yesterday, had made a career out of criticizing Lenin's interpretation of Marx." 14 SLOVAKIA Benes Moves to Moscow Early in H)45 Benes made his final decision. Accompanied by Jari Sramek and the other ministers of his ca:binet he moved from London to Moscow preferring to reenter his country with the Red Army rather than with the Western liberation troops. In Moscow Benes' star began to decline. He had to nominate a new cabinet in which staunch communists held the key positions. The Soviets were probably not quite sure yet of Czecho-Slovakia. They had freed General Prchala's troops from the concentration camps and sent them, under the command of a man named Svoboda, to the Dukla Pass in the Ca:r,pathians. There most of these young Czech soldiers found their death. But the Soviets still wanted Benes' help. They used the first stop t!he provisional Czecho~lovak Government had to make on Czecho-Slovak soil in the wake of the Red Army, to proclaim a political manifesto that bound Benes and his friends even closer to Moscow than the treaty of 1943. The Kosice Program The Kosice Program, as th:is manifesto is usually called, achieved two things with one stroke: It set the Communist P.arity on its way to final domination of Czecho-Slovakia and it committed the non-Communist members of the Government to help the Communists achieve this aim. It also enacted a decision which had been taken by the Benes group as early as 1943 in London: the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as well as of the Magyarspeaking population of Czecho-Slovakia. Later we were to pay dearly for this blindness. One thing was o·bvious from the very beginning t o any reader of the Kosice program : it was directed against the Czecho-Slovak constitution of 1920. Everyone who had signed it could, according to the laws of the Republic, have been summoned before a court and condemned for high treason. The two parits of the document which were most obviously undemocratic were those concerned with the nationalization of basic industry and the ban of nonCommunist or non-Socialist political parties. SLOVAKIA 15 The announcemen t of the program caused much anxiety throughout the country. But the note of triumph of Socialist propaganda became louder and louder as the President approached Prague and culminated in his message to the provisional Parliament whose members were all appointed by Dr. Benes, and which had .assembled in Prague on October 28, 1945. "Today," tlhe message read, "we are betaking ourselves along a path which is to lead to the socialization of modern society." The President wholehearted ly endorsed the Kosice program. Secret Police Early Established Immediately after liberation, poiice forces, the SNB, the STB, and the ZOB, organized throughout the country under the auspices of .the Red Army, were to solve thd problems. Any,body arrested by them could have been retained ind~inljtely. Those beaten to death in the prison cells or deported to Siberia have left no traces. Democratic politidans, such as Ivan Micura, a prominent Slovak who had constantly opposed the Nazi domina,tion of Central Europe~ were arrested in their homes, deported to Russia and never heard from a,gain. Gradually the immense police apparatus turned its energies to "prdblems of socialization." Afl persons who possessed some property were put on a list of suspicious persons. The following document gives a good illustration of this process: "Recorded on September 12, 1945, at 1100 hours in the office of the District National Committee in Novy Bydzov. "The Chairman of the District National Committee of Novy Bydzov, in accordance with orders received from the Minister of Food Supply, Mr. Vaclav Majer, and the Provincial National Committee, issues the following order to Ladislav Stulik, milrler in Hradisko: "I order you to revoke, at not later than 4 p. m. of this day, the complaints which you have submitted to the district· court of justice on behalf of the millers' union; if you should not comply with this order I shall have you arrested at 6 p. m. I also order you to refrain from any 16 SLOVAKIA participation in public life. The police measures mentioned above will also be applied to the members of your family, if you do not comply with this order." "Gestapoism" At the same time a wave of cruel hatred travelled from one individual to another. Perhaps the majority of the Czechs were suddenly ready to suspect, to denounce, to arrest, and to torture their neighbors. In a town in eastern Bohemia a group of local intellectuals used to assemble every night at a given hour and to pay a visit to the district jail where hundreds of people, suspected of · collaboration with the Nazis during the war, were imprisoned. There they amused themselves until the small hours by beating the prisoners with sticks and ropes. This willingness to do evil spread as an infectious disease. Someone called it "gestapoism." Its victims were in the first place the Sudeten Germans. Outrages were committed such as the tragic march of death of 60,000 German speaking inhabitants of Brno, the capital of Moravia, from that city to the Austrian border - a march during which about half of the victims miserably perished. But the same cruelties were committed by the Czechs also against other Czechs. In places such as the Pankrac prison in Prague or the Kounicovy Koleje in Brno, people who had been denounced by their neighbors were, without any investigation at all, machinegunned by hundreds every night and buried in common graves. It was on the dirty floor of a Pankrac prison cell that death came to Emil Ha.cha, former President of Czechoslovakia, a great scholar and gentleman whose only concern had been the welfare of his nation. One of the prisoners, who was lucky enough to endure the tortures and to stay alive, relates his memories: "I saw bodies with demolished faces and without eyes, heaps of bodies of men, women, and even children. I have heard jailors reading names from a list of those who were to be set free, but who had already died of starvation days before and whose bodies I myself was forced to remove from our crowded prison cells. Twice a week I had to help load SLOVAKIA 17 trucks with such corpses, --corpses of those who were investigated but never reached a court of justice. I saw with my own eyes a prisoner who had been prepared for an investigation, have his legs pierced above the heels, a rope placed through the holes, and then suspended on a hook in the wall. This torture, it is true, did not last long, but when, after three years, the prisoner in question was set free, the investigators were still unable to define the charges a!;ainst him." No wonder that, when the weekly paper "0bzory" was started by the Czech People's Party in Prague, one of the first articles submitted to the editors by a young girl, Renata J., was a treatise on fear. "We are a generation of fear," she wrote in her manuscript, "we live in fear, we eat in fear, fear devours our thoughts, our words - words which we do no dare to utter... " Such was the real Czecho-Slovakia of 1945, when Dr. Benes was its President. People were ousted from their jobs, their lodgings. Their properties were confiscated. And they were unable to appeal to the law. Little wonder, then, that the Communists made easy game of Czecho-Slovakia . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We can only repeat ,t hat neither Austria nor Hungary, and prolba/bly not even Gerunany, nor even the Sfovaks, woulld a•cce,pt in the '.l10ng rlllil tlhe existence of Czechoslovakia. Therefore the grafting of Ozeohoslova!kia on to a Danubian federation is hardly possjlble. In such a framewwk she wou1.d si1mply continue to be what she was in her prevti.ous existence : an internaitiona:l oolamity. The position would ibe di,f. ferent in the case of Bohemia and Moravia being separated from Slovakia. The O!ften repeated argument that Czecihoslovakia',s 'breaking up into her natural components would cause an even greaiter dislocation in the Daruufbe Basin, fails to convince, if one realizes ,that such a parution is the essentia1l iprerequisilte of the •o reation of a greater State entity." - F. 0. Miiksche - a Czech - in UNC0NlDITIONAL SURRENDER, pp. 216-216; Falber and Faiber, Ltd., London).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Birth of a Satellite Description An account of the resource Bohdan Chudoba Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 12-17 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chudoba, Bohdan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a5c6cc732827ec9522ab7d3b1d052402.pdf 68bf469ebbb26599233137aedddc8107 PDF Text Text 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · �SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- �20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.) � 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · �SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- �20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- 20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Moscow's Smoke Screen in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 18-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuhn, Heinrich, 1922-1997 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2108696922e63094b9a5ce63d48e0a5d.pdf 5c904d52b3f1c6cfafcffbc7f3d73fe4 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 21 STATISTICS AND POLITICS Francis Vnuk I. On November 2, 1938, in Vienna, by an arbitrary award of Germany and Italy, Czecho-Slova kia was forced to cede to Hungary 10,432 km2 of Slovak territory in which there lived according to Slovak statistics: (1) 276,287 Slovaks, 505,808 Magyars, and 75,688 others (Germans, Jews, Ruthenes, etc.) and according to Magyar-Hung arian claims: (2) 727,297 Magyars, 121,890 Slovaks and 12,456 others (mostly Germans). The loss was considered by the Slovaks to be an utter disregard of justice and an improper application of ethnic principles. As such it was intensely resented and was a cause of constant friction between Slovakia and Hungary during the war period. Every student of modern European history must b struck by the tremendous discrepancies in statistical data claimed as correct by both contesting parties. It seems that in politica..l statistics even mathematics cease to be an "exact" science. In Vienna the Magyars had the advantage (which was a serious setback to the Slovaks) of demanding and then obtaining application of those rules which were used by the Germans in the solution of the Sudeten question. The Germans took the 1910 census as the guiding principle of "ethnic" r,atification of the "Versailles-Di ktait." Due to this most unfortunaite precedent the Magyars obtained at Vienna far more favorable treatment than they would have received if the actual ethnographic aspects were taken into account. The Slovaks contested the validity of the Hungarian statistics of 1910 on several grounds. They maintained that the statistics were not reliable since they did not consider nationality as such and that they were obtained by Magyar or pro-Magyar census takers at the peak of Magyarization to the subsequent detriment of the non-Ma- �22 SLOVAKIA gyar nationalities. (3) These arguments are worthy of a brief analysis. II. The concept of nationaUty in Magyar eyes had some puzzling and even contradictory features. The existence of nationality was admitted; its rights were legalized in one of the best nationality laws ever drafted.(4) Yet the law was an abysmal failure. It was never put into practice, but remained a dead letter. Normally where there is a nationality there is also a nation. But in Hungary, whi,le there was a Slovak nationality, according to S. Tisza "there was no such thing as the Slovak na:tion." In Magy,ar terminology one oould not be a Slovak, German or a Rumanian, but only a Slovak-, German-, or Rumani'an-speaking Hungarian. Consequently the census questionnaires did not inquire into one's nationality, but they wanted to know what language was used. (5) If a person spoke several languages and one of them was Magyar, that was a satisfactory qualificaition to classify him as a Magyar. It was left to Tiso to point out this unusual fact to the Hungarian negotiators in Komarno in Ootober 1938. When they ins1sted that the statistics of 1910 should be taken as a basis for discussion, Tiso told them bluntly: "That would be a blatant denial of justice. You know very we11 how these figures were arrived at. You never asked us what was our nationality. You simply said to us: 'You can speak Magyar, ergo you are Magyars.' In this manner I was counted as a Magyar 81gainst my wishes and feelings." (6) This is, in a nutshell, an eloquent example of "reliability" of the Hungarian statistics, but unfurtunately rut .that time such arguments did not carry much weight with the Germans whose opinion was to be decisive. (7) Bureaucratically trained German minds were still obsessed with the sanctity of written records and subconsciously sentimental about the Magyars as co-victims of a similar treatment to that imposed on the Germans in Versailles. Ill A close look at the official Hungarian statistics of the 1900-1910 decade reveals a very serious weakening of �SLOVAKIA 23 the Slov:ak element. Nowhere else in Hungary was the magyarization process making such inroads as in Slovakia (8) (which the Magyars preferred to call "Felvidek") 1-900 11910 Papula,tilOn Charuge I Total I % ·I 11dtal I % !Iner.ease !!Decrease I % Magyars 8,651,520j51.4 9,944,627•154.5111,293,'10711 + 14.9 GerJ'lj.ans 1,999,060111.9 11',903,357 )10.4 95.703 - 4.8 Srovaks 55,808- 2.8 12,002,16511.91,94'6,357,lll0.7 Rumanians 2,798,55916.6 2,>94!8,100 116.1 149,627 + 5.4 Yugoslaivs 629;169 3.7 656,324 3.6 39,496 + 6.3 R'll!thenes 4124,774 2.5 4164,270 2.5 27,155 + 6.4 Othe~s 33•3 ,308 2 .0 401,4'12 2.2 68,404 1+ 20.5 ------N ation,ality According to the above table the net population increase in 1900-1910 amounted to 1,426,278, which, however, included numerical decreases of two nationalities (Slovaks and Germans), small increases in other non-Magyar nationalities and an unpropor.tionaUy big increase in the dominant Magyar nationality. The figure becomes even more striking when one considers that out of each 1000 peI'sons in the 1900-1910 population increase 907 were Magyars and only 93 non-Magyars. The Magyar nationality increased by 14.9 per cent while the total increase of nonMagyar nationalities was only 1.6 per cent. The extent of the denationaHzation policy pursued by the Hungarian government becomes very revealing when the national increase, due to the difference between births and deaths and the migratory factors is considered. The number of births and the mortality figures .per 1,000 population are given in the following table for the years 1900 and 1910: YEAR 1900 Nati:onality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs - I •B om I Died 39.1 36.7 43.9 37.7 42.3 42.6 25.7 25.0 29.7 28.8 27.5 34.4 - -- YEAR 1910 ID.ised I Increase I Incre ase I !Bom I 13.4 11.7 14.2 8.9 14.8 8.2 -· I I 35.1 32.0 38.4 35.7 39.5 38.9 - ---- - I 22.0 I I 21.5 24.7 27.4 24.8 28.3 13.1 10.5 13.7 8.3 14.7 10.6 The table shows an even increase of various nationalities, and it is · interesting to note that on the birth and �SLOVAKIA 24 death basis the Ruthenes and Slovaks were the fastest growing nationalities of pre-war Hungary. There is, of course, another factor of significant importance which in the first decade of this century played an important part in the population structure of old Hungary, namely emigration. For simplicity's sake the year 1910 is taken as typical. The emigration figures per 1,000 population are as follows: Nationality I I Emigrat ion !balance Number •o f / Returned emigrants emigra,ruts -1.8 -6.8 -6.7 -4.1 -5.9 -2.5 0.8 2.0 2.5 1.0 2.3 1.3 2.6 8.8 9.3 5.1 8.2 3.8 Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs The population increase per 1,000 population in the census year 1910 should, therefore, be: increa,se per i IINet 1000 (derived I from, death a•nd Nationality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs I emi,g ration data) I 11.3 3.7 7.0 4.2 8.8 8.1 . . Percentual mcrea:se As estimated Actual from statistrcs 1.13 0.37 0.70 0.42 0.88 0.81 I I + 1.49 -0.48 -0.28 + 0.54 + 0.64 + 0.63 For the Slovaks these figures have a tragic significance. It was no empty threat that the Slovak nation was faced with its own extinction. The statistics show this. The decline of the Slovak nationality was catastrophically rapid. In the decade 1900-19100 the SloV1ak population should have increased by about 160,000; instead it decreased by more than 55,000. This represents a loss of about 215,000, i.e., nearly 11 per cent. The figures are really staggering. (9) The Slovaks contested that this out-of-all-proporti ons decrease cannot be explained otherwise than by contribut- �SLOVAKIA ing it to the falsification of results by the Hungarian census takers and/or .s tatisticians. They argued that even the forcible and tempting means which the Mo-gyars a:s the dominant nationality had at their disposal could not account for this terrifying decrease. There is ample evidencrthat Slovak resistance to magyarization was at least as good as that of the Rumani1a ns and better than that of the Ruthenes. And yet the latter two nationalities recorded an increase where the Slovaks showed unparalleled losses. Assimilation and denationalization are responsible for some, fals-ifiers for the rest, so run the Slovak arguments. The Slovak,s requested that the arbitrators in the Slovak-Magyar di-spute should rely on the Czecho-Slovak statistics of 1930 which, being of more recent date, give a more realistic picture of the actua:1 state of affairs. The Magyars, however, refused most steadfastly to accept the official Czecho-Slovak statistics, giving very much the same reasons as advanced by the Sloveks against the Magyar statistics. Apparently what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander. IV. It must be admitted that the Czecho-Slov,ak statistics were not favorable to the Magyar minority in Slovakia, or at least not as generous as the Magyars would have liked them to be. Census returns show a considerable drop in numerical strength of the Magy,ar minority: 634,827 in 1921, 571,988 in 1930, a decrease of 9.9 per cent. It must, however, be remembered that in the same time the Slovak minority in Trianon Hungary decreased from 142,000 to 104,000 which represents a decrease of 26.78 per cent. And finally one has to look for the cause of statisti<!al discrepancies also in the population. There the question of nationa:lity is quite frequently motivated by utilitarian and opportunist as much as national sentiments. This is especially so with the bilingual section of the population and such indigenous groups as Jews and Gypsies who would inva,r iably be loyal to the regime of the day. In the old Hungarian statistics Jews and Gypsies were never considered as separate ethnic groups. On t·h e other hand they �26 SLOVAKIA were treated as such by Czecho-Slovak authorities. According to some estimates, this fact alone accounts for a numerical "decrease" of the Magyar minority in Slovakia, before and after World War I, by about 80,000. The Vienna arbitration was carried out in the atmosphere of "the spirit of the Munich Agreement." Magyar wrongdoing faded away in the distant past, while Czech wrongdoings - alleged or real - were still the order of the day. All the paraphernalia of the Czech-German dispute formed the background against which the SlovakMagyar settlement was projected. Due to the ethnographical complex of the issue it would have been impossible to fix the Slovak-Magyar boundary to the satisfaction of both parties were the arbitrator Solomon himself. It was very much easier to draw it to the dissatisfaction of both sides. But the arbitra,tors decided to satisfy one and wrong the other. The fateful concentration of circumstances was unfavorable to the Slovaks. Tiso, in his broadcast on November 2, 1938, announcing the results of the Vienna Award, poured out his countrymen's sorrow and bitterness; "We have become the victims of injustice. . . Our people, through no fault of its own, has been treated as an object and has come into a situaition which disposed of it as a defeated enemy, without its participation and therefore against it, and often in contradiction to the ethnic principle. 'l'he "Great Powers" have decided, there is nothing else to do but to bow our heads and to work; but no one can prevent us from proclaiming to the whole world that a great injustice has been done to the Slovak people. Under the dictated peace of Trianon, hardly 6 per cent of the Magyar people had to live in Slovakia, whereas under the new settlement of the Slovak frontiers nearly 20 per cent of the Slovak people will have to live in Hungary." (10) APPENDIX In the tables given below the ethnical evolution of ten towns of the Slovak-Magyar linguistic boundary is recorded. In all cases the Magyar element was on the increase in the period 1880-1910, at the expense of the Slovak and �27 SLOVAKIA German component. After 1919 the process was reversen. The rapid increase of the Slovak popufation was mostly due to the influx of rural population to towns, the newcomers being mostly exclusively of Slovak nationality. :POPULATION STRJUCTU'RE Tow.n and c,e nsus year Slovaks Total % Magyars Total % Germans Total % Bratislava 1857 1880 1890 1900 1910 1930 4,600 7,273 a,709 10,7115 U,67G 60,013 14.5 15.7 17,2 16.7 15.3 5'8.7 2,500 7,270 10,4-S3 20;102 31,705 18,'890 7.8 15.7 20.6 31.4 41.7 16.9 .24!,732 30,440 311,404' 33,202 32,790 32,801 77.7 65.6 62.2 51.9 43.0 29.4 4,3719 10,3,1,1 9,7113 9,244 6,5417 42,24;5 39.2 40.9 40.4 23.9 15.4 74.0 2,500 10,007 10,4'21 25,996 33,350 111,504 22.5 3'9.8 43 .4 67.0 77.2 20.1 4,200 4,218 3•,891 3,'189 3,354 37.8 16.8 16.0 8.9 7.4 5.2 3,403' 5,538 4,929 Ul,462 40. 7 36.9 30.'l 92:.4 2,990 7,'2119 9,754 96'1 35. 7 47.8 59.7 4.8 1,969 2,3'12 1,636 5'1>'8 23.6 15.3 10.2 2.8 1,41'9 ·565 449 2,781 54.3 20.4 16.2 ·86.0 1;127 2,167 2:,289 255 43.3 78.5 82.3 7.9 55 3'1 4'2 197 2.4 1.1 1.5 6,1 3,403 3,381 2,181 6,027 89,2 73•,8 ~-0 97.0 200 l •,1 07 2,300 5.2 24.2 2:15 15'8 51.>1 2.5 4'2 32 T78 785 5,106 7,449 8,7512: 4,974 81'.0 88.3 91.7 44.6 423 688 5,956 12.3 9.3 7.2 53.5 856 1,000 1,,6 75 8,71•5 18.0 10.4 13Jl 64.L 3,,6 09 8,1'87 10,634: 4,007 75.0 87.0 83.6 29.4 333 249 428 889 ------------ Kol;ic,e ''' 1857 1880 1890 1900 1<910 1930 3,446 "Ruthenes omitted Nitra 1880 1900 1910 1930 Jelsava 1880 1900 1910 H~30 Trebisov 1880 1900 1910 11930 88 5.6 2.0 0.9 0.5 Levice 1880 1900 11910 1930 198 199 214 6.7 2.4 2.,1 1..9 Lucenec 1880 1900 1910 1930 7.0 2.6 3.3 6.5 �SLOVAKIA 28 Rimavska Sobota 1:880 1900 1910 1930 443 322 468 2,939 9.5 5.3 6.9 44.8 4,102 5,424' 6,1199 3,504 ,88.0 '93.5 91.8 53.4 124 Roznava lr880 1900 1910 1930 400 233 406 2,506 9.9 4.5 6.3 42.7 3,884' 4,7,68 5,886 3,211 83,.8 92.2 9lr.2 54.4 Nove Zamky 1880 1900 1'910 1930 1,466 822 964 9,561 14.3 6.2 6.1 47.8 7,189 12,1,97 14,838 10,193 77.7 91.3 91.6 51.0 1 69 2.5 .1.2 91 116 1.8 259 173 159 170 6.3 3.3 2.5 2.9 813 8.0 2.5 2.3 1.2 340 3'77 256 u REFERENCE S: 1 Documents British Foreign Policy, Third Series, Vol. III, p . 225. 2 Survey of International Afifairs rn38, Vol. Ill p. 105. 3 Cf. Tiso's conversation with Ribbentrop on October 19, 1~38, where Tiso said, "The Sl'ovarks hav,e determined and could pr,ove that the 1910 sta'tistks were incorrect a,n d t'hat they even had been falsified ." (Doc. Ger. F1or. Pol. D., Vol. IV, p. 87.) 4 The Law of Nati-onaiities (Act 44/ 1864) is rerpr:oduiced in R. W. Seton-Watson: Racial Problems in Hungary (Consrtahle, London, 1908), p. 4'299-4'33. Pr:ofessor Seton-Watson gives also a penetrating a,nd· scholarly a,na.lysis of this Act. poin'ting out the differences between lofty t,h eories a;nd l ow practices. 5 This practi,ce was followed till 1941, when for the first time in Magyar history the nationalirty of the inhaibi'tants otf Hurugary was ascertained. 6 A story was told in those days (most priolbalbly apocryiphal) that after th.is point,blank-Jired reminder of Tiso, a memlber c:,f the Hungarian delegation stood up an'd, instead of a long reply, answered in Magyar: "Igazad, s6g,or, de senrki sem .sLszi" (Y:ou are righit, brother, rbu't rnJlbody will believe you). 7 The litalians were eager to placarte the Magyars at somebody else's e~pense. The Slovaks knew v,e ry ,w ell tha t they could no t expect any und,erstanding for their point c:,f view fr:om the cynical Ciano. Jin their efforts to assure bett er terms they concenitr<ated exclusively on Ribbentrop. Unforituna-tely 'he had more will than skill to help them. 8 StaHstical data for this part oif the article come mostly from "Magyar s:zlta:tisztikai kozlemenyek" and "Annuaire statistique de la Repu blique Tchecoslorvaque." 9 The advance of magyarization in 1'880-1910 and the tur.n o,f the tide after 1'919 are best soon from the sta'tistical data taJbulated in .Aippen<lix. 10 "Prager Presse," November 4, 1938. - No need to say that Tiso was basing his statement on Czecho-Slovak ofific'ial statistics. 1 1 1 � SLOVAKIA 21 STATISTICS AND POLITICS Francis Vnuk I. On November 2, 1938, in Vienna, by an arbitrary award of Germany and Italy, Czecho-Slova kia was forced to cede to Hungary 10,432 km2 of Slovak territory in which there lived according to Slovak statistics: (1) 276,287 Slovaks, 505,808 Magyars, and 75,688 others (Germans, Jews, Ruthenes, etc.) and according to Magyar-Hung arian claims: (2) 727,297 Magyars, 121,890 Slovaks and 12,456 others (mostly Germans). The loss was considered by the Slovaks to be an utter disregard of justice and an improper application of ethnic principles. As such it was intensely resented and was a cause of constant friction between Slovakia and Hungary during the war period. Every student of modern European history must b struck by the tremendous discrepancies in statistical data claimed as correct by both contesting parties. It seems that in politica..l statistics even mathematics cease to be an "exact" science. In Vienna the Magyars had the advantage (which was a serious setback to the Slovaks) of demanding and then obtaining application of those rules which were used by the Germans in the solution of the Sudeten question. The Germans took the 1910 census as the guiding principle of "ethnic" r,atification of the "Versailles-Di ktait." Due to this most unfortunaite precedent the Magyars obtained at Vienna far more favorable treatment than they would have received if the actual ethnographic aspects were taken into account. The Slovaks contested the validity of the Hungarian statistics of 1910 on several grounds. They maintained that the statistics were not reliable since they did not consider nationality as such and that they were obtained by Magyar or pro-Magyar census takers at the peak of Magyarization to the subsequent detriment of the non-Ma- �22 SLOVAKIA gyar nationalities. (3) These arguments are worthy of a brief analysis. II. The concept of nationaUty in Magyar eyes had some puzzling and even contradictory features. The existence of nationality was admitted; its rights were legalized in one of the best nationality laws ever drafted.(4) Yet the law was an abysmal failure. It was never put into practice, but remained a dead letter. Normally where there is a nationality there is also a nation. But in Hungary, whi,le there was a Slovak nationality, according to S. Tisza "there was no such thing as the Slovak na:tion." In Magy,ar terminology one oould not be a Slovak, German or a Rumanian, but only a Slovak-, German-, or Rumani'an-speaking Hungarian. Consequently the census questionnaires did not inquire into one's nationality, but they wanted to know what language was used. (5) If a person spoke several languages and one of them was Magyar, that was a satisfactory qualificaition to classify him as a Magyar. It was left to Tiso to point out this unusual fact to the Hungarian negotiators in Komarno in Ootober 1938. When they ins1sted that the statistics of 1910 should be taken as a basis for discussion, Tiso told them bluntly: "That would be a blatant denial of justice. You know very we11 how these figures were arrived at. You never asked us what was our nationality. You simply said to us: 'You can speak Magyar, ergo you are Magyars.' In this manner I was counted as a Magyar 81gainst my wishes and feelings." (6) This is, in a nutshell, an eloquent example of "reliability" of the Hungarian statistics, but unfurtunately rut .that time such arguments did not carry much weight with the Germans whose opinion was to be decisive. (7) Bureaucratically trained German minds were still obsessed with the sanctity of written records and subconsciously sentimental about the Magyars as co-victims of a similar treatment to that imposed on the Germans in Versailles. Ill A close look at the official Hungarian statistics of the 1900-1910 decade reveals a very serious weakening of �SLOVAKIA 23 the Slov:ak element. Nowhere else in Hungary was the magyarization process making such inroads as in Slovakia (8) (which the Magyars preferred to call "Felvidek") 1-900 11910 Papula,tilOn Charuge I Total I % ·I 11dtal I % !Iner.ease !!Decrease I % Magyars 8,651,520j51.4 9,944,627•154.5111,293,'10711 + 14.9 GerJ'lj.ans 1,999,060111.9 11',903,357 )10.4 95.703 - 4.8 Srovaks 55,808- 2.8 12,002,16511.91,94'6,357,lll0.7 Rumanians 2,798,55916.6 2,>94!8,100 116.1 149,627 + 5.4 Yugoslaivs 629;169 3.7 656,324 3.6 39,496 + 6.3 R'll!thenes 4124,774 2.5 4164,270 2.5 27,155 + 6.4 Othe~s 33•3 ,308 2 .0 401,4'12 2.2 68,404 1+ 20.5 ------N ation,ality According to the above table the net population increase in 1900-1910 amounted to 1,426,278, which, however, included numerical decreases of two nationalities (Slovaks and Germans), small increases in other non-Magyar nationalities and an unpropor.tionaUy big increase in the dominant Magyar nationality. The figure becomes even more striking when one considers that out of each 1000 peI'sons in the 1900-1910 population increase 907 were Magyars and only 93 non-Magyars. The Magyar nationality increased by 14.9 per cent while the total increase of nonMagyar nationalities was only 1.6 per cent. The extent of the denationaHzation policy pursued by the Hungarian government becomes very revealing when the national increase, due to the difference between births and deaths and the migratory factors is considered. The number of births and the mortality figures .per 1,000 population are given in the following table for the years 1900 and 1910: YEAR 1900 Nati:onality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs - I •B om I Died 39.1 36.7 43.9 37.7 42.3 42.6 25.7 25.0 29.7 28.8 27.5 34.4 - -- YEAR 1910 ID.ised I Increase I Incre ase I !Bom I 13.4 11.7 14.2 8.9 14.8 8.2 -· I I 35.1 32.0 38.4 35.7 39.5 38.9 - ---- - I 22.0 I I 21.5 24.7 27.4 24.8 28.3 13.1 10.5 13.7 8.3 14.7 10.6 The table shows an even increase of various nationalities, and it is · interesting to note that on the birth and �SLOVAKIA 24 death basis the Ruthenes and Slovaks were the fastest growing nationalities of pre-war Hungary. There is, of course, another factor of significant importance which in the first decade of this century played an important part in the population structure of old Hungary, namely emigration. For simplicity's sake the year 1910 is taken as typical. The emigration figures per 1,000 population are as follows: Nationality I I Emigrat ion !balance Number •o f / Returned emigrants emigra,ruts -1.8 -6.8 -6.7 -4.1 -5.9 -2.5 0.8 2.0 2.5 1.0 2.3 1.3 2.6 8.8 9.3 5.1 8.2 3.8 Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs The population increase per 1,000 population in the census year 1910 should, therefore, be: increa,se per i IINet 1000 (derived I from, death a•nd Nationality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs I emi,g ration data) I 11.3 3.7 7.0 4.2 8.8 8.1 . . Percentual mcrea:se As estimated Actual from statistrcs 1.13 0.37 0.70 0.42 0.88 0.81 I I + 1.49 -0.48 -0.28 + 0.54 + 0.64 + 0.63 For the Slovaks these figures have a tragic significance. It was no empty threat that the Slovak nation was faced with its own extinction. The statistics show this. The decline of the Slovak nationality was catastrophically rapid. In the decade 1900-19100 the SloV1ak population should have increased by about 160,000; instead it decreased by more than 55,000. This represents a loss of about 215,000, i.e., nearly 11 per cent. The figures are really staggering. (9) The Slovaks contested that this out-of-all-proporti ons decrease cannot be explained otherwise than by contribut- �SLOVAKIA ing it to the falsification of results by the Hungarian census takers and/or .s tatisticians. They argued that even the forcible and tempting means which the Mo-gyars a:s the dominant nationality had at their disposal could not account for this terrifying decrease. There is ample evidencrthat Slovak resistance to magyarization was at least as good as that of the Rumani1a ns and better than that of the Ruthenes. And yet the latter two nationalities recorded an increase where the Slovaks showed unparalleled losses. Assimilation and denationalization are responsible for some, fals-ifiers for the rest, so run the Slovak arguments. The Slovak,s requested that the arbitrators in the Slovak-Magyar di-spute should rely on the Czecho-Slovak statistics of 1930 which, being of more recent date, give a more realistic picture of the actua:1 state of affairs. The Magyars, however, refused most steadfastly to accept the official Czecho-Slovak statistics, giving very much the same reasons as advanced by the Sloveks against the Magyar statistics. Apparently what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander. IV. It must be admitted that the Czecho-Slov,ak statistics were not favorable to the Magyar minority in Slovakia, or at least not as generous as the Magyars would have liked them to be. Census returns show a considerable drop in numerical strength of the Magy,ar minority: 634,827 in 1921, 571,988 in 1930, a decrease of 9.9 per cent. It must, however, be remembered that in the same time the Slovak minority in Trianon Hungary decreased from 142,000 to 104,000 which represents a decrease of 26.78 per cent. And finally one has to look for the cause of statisti<!al discrepancies also in the population. There the question of nationa:lity is quite frequently motivated by utilitarian and opportunist as much as national sentiments. This is especially so with the bilingual section of the population and such indigenous groups as Jews and Gypsies who would inva,r iably be loyal to the regime of the day. In the old Hungarian statistics Jews and Gypsies were never considered as separate ethnic groups. On t·h e other hand they �26 SLOVAKIA were treated as such by Czecho-Slovak authorities. According to some estimates, this fact alone accounts for a numerical "decrease" of the Magyar minority in Slovakia, before and after World War I, by about 80,000. The Vienna arbitration was carried out in the atmosphere of "the spirit of the Munich Agreement." Magyar wrongdoing faded away in the distant past, while Czech wrongdoings - alleged or real - were still the order of the day. All the paraphernalia of the Czech-German dispute formed the background against which the SlovakMagyar settlement was projected. Due to the ethnographical complex of the issue it would have been impossible to fix the Slovak-Magyar boundary to the satisfaction of both parties were the arbitrator Solomon himself. It was very much easier to draw it to the dissatisfaction of both sides. But the arbitra,tors decided to satisfy one and wrong the other. The fateful concentration of circumstances was unfavorable to the Slovaks. Tiso, in his broadcast on November 2, 1938, announcing the results of the Vienna Award, poured out his countrymen's sorrow and bitterness; "We have become the victims of injustice. . . Our people, through no fault of its own, has been treated as an object and has come into a situaition which disposed of it as a defeated enemy, without its participation and therefore against it, and often in contradiction to the ethnic principle. 'l'he "Great Powers" have decided, there is nothing else to do but to bow our heads and to work; but no one can prevent us from proclaiming to the whole world that a great injustice has been done to the Slovak people. Under the dictated peace of Trianon, hardly 6 per cent of the Magyar people had to live in Slovakia, whereas under the new settlement of the Slovak frontiers nearly 20 per cent of the Slovak people will have to live in Hungary." (10) APPENDIX In the tables given below the ethnical evolution of ten towns of the Slovak-Magyar linguistic boundary is recorded. In all cases the Magyar element was on the increase in the period 1880-1910, at the expense of the Slovak and �27 SLOVAKIA German component. After 1919 the process was reversen. The rapid increase of the Slovak popufation was mostly due to the influx of rural population to towns, the newcomers being mostly exclusively of Slovak nationality. :POPULATION STRJUCTU'RE Tow.n and c,e nsus year Slovaks Total % Magyars Total % Germans Total % Bratislava 1857 1880 1890 1900 1910 1930 4,600 7,273 a,709 10,7115 U,67G 60,013 14.5 15.7 17,2 16.7 15.3 5'8.7 2,500 7,270 10,4-S3 20;102 31,705 18,'890 7.8 15.7 20.6 31.4 41.7 16.9 .24!,732 30,440 311,404' 33,202 32,790 32,801 77.7 65.6 62.2 51.9 43.0 29.4 4,3719 10,3,1,1 9,7113 9,244 6,5417 42,24;5 39.2 40.9 40.4 23.9 15.4 74.0 2,500 10,007 10,4'21 25,996 33,350 111,504 22.5 3'9.8 43 .4 67.0 77.2 20.1 4,200 4,218 3•,891 3,'189 3,354 37.8 16.8 16.0 8.9 7.4 5.2 3,403' 5,538 4,929 Ul,462 40. 7 36.9 30.'l 92:.4 2,990 7,'2119 9,754 96'1 35. 7 47.8 59.7 4.8 1,969 2,3'12 1,636 5'1>'8 23.6 15.3 10.2 2.8 1,41'9 ·565 449 2,781 54.3 20.4 16.2 ·86.0 1;127 2,167 2:,289 255 43.3 78.5 82.3 7.9 55 3'1 4'2 197 2.4 1.1 1.5 6,1 3,403 3,381 2,181 6,027 89,2 73•,8 ~-0 97.0 200 l •,1 07 2,300 5.2 24.2 2:15 15'8 51.>1 2.5 4'2 32 T78 785 5,106 7,449 8,7512: 4,974 81'.0 88.3 91.7 44.6 423 688 5,956 12.3 9.3 7.2 53.5 856 1,000 1,,6 75 8,71•5 18.0 10.4 13Jl 64.L 3,,6 09 8,1'87 10,634: 4,007 75.0 87.0 83.6 29.4 333 249 428 889 ------------ Kol;ic,e ''' 1857 1880 1890 1900 1<910 1930 3,446 "Ruthenes omitted Nitra 1880 1900 1910 1930 Jelsava 1880 1900 1910 H~30 Trebisov 1880 1900 1910 11930 88 5.6 2.0 0.9 0.5 Levice 1880 1900 11910 1930 198 199 214 6.7 2.4 2.,1 1..9 Lucenec 1880 1900 1910 1930 7.0 2.6 3.3 6.5 �SLOVAKIA 28 Rimavska Sobota 1:880 1900 1910 1930 443 322 468 2,939 9.5 5.3 6.9 44.8 4,102 5,424' 6,1199 3,504 ,88.0 '93.5 91.8 53.4 124 Roznava lr880 1900 1910 1930 400 233 406 2,506 9.9 4.5 6.3 42.7 3,884' 4,7,68 5,886 3,211 83,.8 92.2 9lr.2 54.4 Nove Zamky 1880 1900 1'910 1930 1,466 822 964 9,561 14.3 6.2 6.1 47.8 7,189 12,1,97 14,838 10,193 77.7 91.3 91.6 51.0 1 69 2.5 .1.2 91 116 1.8 259 173 159 170 6.3 3.3 2.5 2.9 813 8.0 2.5 2.3 1.2 340 3'77 256 u REFERENCE S: 1 Documents British Foreign Policy, Third Series, Vol. III, p . 225. 2 Survey of International Afifairs rn38, Vol. Ill p. 105. 3 Cf. Tiso's conversation with Ribbentrop on October 19, 1~38, where Tiso said, "The Sl'ovarks hav,e determined and could pr,ove that the 1910 sta'tistks were incorrect a,n d t'hat they even had been falsified ." (Doc. Ger. F1or. Pol. D., Vol. IV, p. 87.) 4 The Law of Nati-onaiities (Act 44/ 1864) is rerpr:oduiced in R. W. Seton-Watson: Racial Problems in Hungary (Consrtahle, London, 1908), p. 4'299-4'33. Pr:ofessor Seton-Watson gives also a penetrating a,nd· scholarly a,na.lysis of this Act. poin'ting out the differences between lofty t,h eories a;nd l ow practices. 5 This practi,ce was followed till 1941, when for the first time in Magyar history the nationalirty of the inhaibi'tants otf Hurugary was ascertained. 6 A story was told in those days (most priolbalbly apocryiphal) that after th.is point,blank-Jired reminder of Tiso, a memlber c:,f the Hungarian delegation stood up an'd, instead of a long reply, answered in Magyar: "Igazad, s6g,or, de senrki sem .sLszi" (Y:ou are righit, brother, rbu't rnJlbody will believe you). 7 The litalians were eager to placarte the Magyars at somebody else's e~pense. The Slovaks knew v,e ry ,w ell tha t they could no t expect any und,erstanding for their point c:,f view fr:om the cynical Ciano. Jin their efforts to assure bett er terms they concenitr<ated exclusively on Ribbentrop. Unforituna-tely 'he had more will than skill to help them. 8 StaHstical data for this part oif the article come mostly from "Magyar s:zlta:tisztikai kozlemenyek" and "Annuaire statistique de la Repu blique Tchecoslorvaque." 9 The advance of magyarization in 1'880-1910 and the tur.n o,f the tide after 1'919 are best soon from the sta'tistical data taJbulated in .Aippen<lix. 10 "Prager Presse," November 4, 1938. - No need to say that Tiso was basing his statement on Czecho-Slovak ofific'ial statistics. 1 1 1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 21 STATISTICS AND POLITICS Francis Vnuk I. On November 2, 1938, in Vienna, by an arbitrary award of Germany and Italy, Czecho-Slova kia was forced to cede to Hungary 10,432 km2 of Slovak territory in which there lived according to Slovak statistics: (1) 276,287 Slovaks, 505,808 Magyars, and 75,688 others (Germans, Jews, Ruthenes, etc.) and according to Magyar-Hung arian claims: (2) 727,297 Magyars, 121,890 Slovaks and 12,456 others (mostly Germans). The loss was considered by the Slovaks to be an utter disregard of justice and an improper application of ethnic principles. As such it was intensely resented and was a cause of constant friction between Slovakia and Hungary during the war period. Every student of modern European history must b struck by the tremendous discrepancies in statistical data claimed as correct by both contesting parties. It seems that in politica..l statistics even mathematics cease to be an "exact" science. In Vienna the Magyars had the advantage (which was a serious setback to the Slovaks) of demanding and then obtaining application of those rules which were used by the Germans in the solution of the Sudeten question. The Germans took the 1910 census as the guiding principle of "ethnic" r,atification of the "Versailles-Di ktait." Due to this most unfortunaite precedent the Magyars obtained at Vienna far more favorable treatment than they would have received if the actual ethnographic aspects were taken into account. The Slovaks contested the validity of the Hungarian statistics of 1910 on several grounds. They maintained that the statistics were not reliable since they did not consider nationality as such and that they were obtained by Magyar or pro-Magyar census takers at the peak of Magyarization to the subsequent detriment of the non-Ma- 22 SLOVAKIA gyar nationalities. (3) These arguments are worthy of a brief analysis. II. The concept of nationaUty in Magyar eyes had some puzzling and even contradictory features. The existence of nationality was admitted; its rights were legalized in one of the best nationality laws ever drafted.(4) Yet the law was an abysmal failure. It was never put into practice, but remained a dead letter. Normally where there is a nationality there is also a nation. But in Hungary, whi,le there was a Slovak nationality, according to S. Tisza "there was no such thing as the Slovak na:tion." In Magy,ar terminology one oould not be a Slovak, German or a Rumanian, but only a Slovak-, German-, or Rumani'an-speaking Hungarian. Consequently the census questionnaires did not inquire into one's nationality, but they wanted to know what language was used. (5) If a person spoke several languages and one of them was Magyar, that was a satisfactory qualificaition to classify him as a Magyar. It was left to Tiso to point out this unusual fact to the Hungarian negotiators in Komarno in Ootober 1938. When they ins1sted that the statistics of 1910 should be taken as a basis for discussion, Tiso told them bluntly: "That would be a blatant denial of justice. You know very we11 how these figures were arrived at. You never asked us what was our nationality. You simply said to us: 'You can speak Magyar, ergo you are Magyars.' In this manner I was counted as a Magyar 81gainst my wishes and feelings." (6) This is, in a nutshell, an eloquent example of "reliability" of the Hungarian statistics, but unfurtunately rut .that time such arguments did not carry much weight with the Germans whose opinion was to be decisive. (7) Bureaucratically trained German minds were still obsessed with the sanctity of written records and subconsciously sentimental about the Magyars as co-victims of a similar treatment to that imposed on the Germans in Versailles. Ill A close look at the official Hungarian statistics of the 1900-1910 decade reveals a very serious weakening of SLOVAKIA 23 the Slov:ak element. Nowhere else in Hungary was the magyarization process making such inroads as in Slovakia (8) (which the Magyars preferred to call "Felvidek") 1-900 11910 Papula,tilOn Charuge I Total I % ·I 11dtal I % !Iner.ease !!Decrease I % Magyars 8,651,520j51.4 9,944,627•154.5111,293,'10711 + 14.9 GerJ'lj.ans 1,999,060111.9 11',903,357 )10.4 95.703 - 4.8 Srovaks 55,808- 2.8 12,002,16511.91,94'6,357,lll0.7 Rumanians 2,798,55916.6 2,>94!8,100 116.1 149,627 + 5.4 Yugoslaivs 629;169 3.7 656,324 3.6 39,496 + 6.3 R'll!thenes 4124,774 2.5 4164,270 2.5 27,155 + 6.4 Othe~s 33•3 ,308 2 .0 401,4'12 2.2 68,404 1+ 20.5 ------N ation,ality According to the above table the net population increase in 1900-1910 amounted to 1,426,278, which, however, included numerical decreases of two nationalities (Slovaks and Germans), small increases in other non-Magyar nationalities and an unpropor.tionaUy big increase in the dominant Magyar nationality. The figure becomes even more striking when one considers that out of each 1000 peI'sons in the 1900-1910 population increase 907 were Magyars and only 93 non-Magyars. The Magyar nationality increased by 14.9 per cent while the total increase of nonMagyar nationalities was only 1.6 per cent. The extent of the denationaHzation policy pursued by the Hungarian government becomes very revealing when the national increase, due to the difference between births and deaths and the migratory factors is considered. The number of births and the mortality figures .per 1,000 population are given in the following table for the years 1900 and 1910: YEAR 1900 Nati:onality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs - I •B om I Died 39.1 36.7 43.9 37.7 42.3 42.6 25.7 25.0 29.7 28.8 27.5 34.4 - -- YEAR 1910 ID.ised I Increase I Incre ase I !Bom I 13.4 11.7 14.2 8.9 14.8 8.2 -· I I 35.1 32.0 38.4 35.7 39.5 38.9 - ---- - I 22.0 I I 21.5 24.7 27.4 24.8 28.3 13.1 10.5 13.7 8.3 14.7 10.6 The table shows an even increase of various nationalities, and it is · interesting to note that on the birth and SLOVAKIA 24 death basis the Ruthenes and Slovaks were the fastest growing nationalities of pre-war Hungary. There is, of course, another factor of significant importance which in the first decade of this century played an important part in the population structure of old Hungary, namely emigration. For simplicity's sake the year 1910 is taken as typical. The emigration figures per 1,000 population are as follows: Nationality I I Emigrat ion !balance Number •o f / Returned emigrants emigra,ruts -1.8 -6.8 -6.7 -4.1 -5.9 -2.5 0.8 2.0 2.5 1.0 2.3 1.3 2.6 8.8 9.3 5.1 8.2 3.8 Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs The population increase per 1,000 population in the census year 1910 should, therefore, be: increa,se per i IINet 1000 (derived I from, death a•nd Nationality Magyars Germans Slovaks Rumanians Ruthenes Yugoslavs I emi,g ration data) I 11.3 3.7 7.0 4.2 8.8 8.1 . . Percentual mcrea:se As estimated Actual from statistrcs 1.13 0.37 0.70 0.42 0.88 0.81 I I + 1.49 -0.48 -0.28 + 0.54 + 0.64 + 0.63 For the Slovaks these figures have a tragic significance. It was no empty threat that the Slovak nation was faced with its own extinction. The statistics show this. The decline of the Slovak nationality was catastrophically rapid. In the decade 1900-19100 the SloV1ak population should have increased by about 160,000; instead it decreased by more than 55,000. This represents a loss of about 215,000, i.e., nearly 11 per cent. The figures are really staggering. (9) The Slovaks contested that this out-of-all-proporti ons decrease cannot be explained otherwise than by contribut- SLOVAKIA ing it to the falsification of results by the Hungarian census takers and/or .s tatisticians. They argued that even the forcible and tempting means which the Mo-gyars a:s the dominant nationality had at their disposal could not account for this terrifying decrease. There is ample evidencrthat Slovak resistance to magyarization was at least as good as that of the Rumani1a ns and better than that of the Ruthenes. And yet the latter two nationalities recorded an increase where the Slovaks showed unparalleled losses. Assimilation and denationalization are responsible for some, fals-ifiers for the rest, so run the Slovak arguments. The Slovak,s requested that the arbitrators in the Slovak-Magyar di-spute should rely on the Czecho-Slovak statistics of 1930 which, being of more recent date, give a more realistic picture of the actua:1 state of affairs. The Magyars, however, refused most steadfastly to accept the official Czecho-Slovak statistics, giving very much the same reasons as advanced by the Sloveks against the Magyar statistics. Apparently what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander. IV. It must be admitted that the Czecho-Slov,ak statistics were not favorable to the Magyar minority in Slovakia, or at least not as generous as the Magyars would have liked them to be. Census returns show a considerable drop in numerical strength of the Magy,ar minority: 634,827 in 1921, 571,988 in 1930, a decrease of 9.9 per cent. It must, however, be remembered that in the same time the Slovak minority in Trianon Hungary decreased from 142,000 to 104,000 which represents a decrease of 26.78 per cent. And finally one has to look for the cause of statisti<!al discrepancies also in the population. There the question of nationa:lity is quite frequently motivated by utilitarian and opportunist as much as national sentiments. This is especially so with the bilingual section of the population and such indigenous groups as Jews and Gypsies who would inva,r iably be loyal to the regime of the day. In the old Hungarian statistics Jews and Gypsies were never considered as separate ethnic groups. On t·h e other hand they 26 SLOVAKIA were treated as such by Czecho-Slovak authorities. According to some estimates, this fact alone accounts for a numerical "decrease" of the Magyar minority in Slovakia, before and after World War I, by about 80,000. The Vienna arbitration was carried out in the atmosphere of "the spirit of the Munich Agreement." Magyar wrongdoing faded away in the distant past, while Czech wrongdoings - alleged or real - were still the order of the day. All the paraphernalia of the Czech-German dispute formed the background against which the SlovakMagyar settlement was projected. Due to the ethnographical complex of the issue it would have been impossible to fix the Slovak-Magyar boundary to the satisfaction of both parties were the arbitrator Solomon himself. It was very much easier to draw it to the dissatisfaction of both sides. But the arbitra,tors decided to satisfy one and wrong the other. The fateful concentration of circumstances was unfavorable to the Slovaks. Tiso, in his broadcast on November 2, 1938, announcing the results of the Vienna Award, poured out his countrymen's sorrow and bitterness; "We have become the victims of injustice. . . Our people, through no fault of its own, has been treated as an object and has come into a situaition which disposed of it as a defeated enemy, without its participation and therefore against it, and often in contradiction to the ethnic principle. 'l'he "Great Powers" have decided, there is nothing else to do but to bow our heads and to work; but no one can prevent us from proclaiming to the whole world that a great injustice has been done to the Slovak people. Under the dictated peace of Trianon, hardly 6 per cent of the Magyar people had to live in Slovakia, whereas under the new settlement of the Slovak frontiers nearly 20 per cent of the Slovak people will have to live in Hungary." (10) APPENDIX In the tables given below the ethnical evolution of ten towns of the Slovak-Magyar linguistic boundary is recorded. In all cases the Magyar element was on the increase in the period 1880-1910, at the expense of the Slovak and 27 SLOVAKIA German component. After 1919 the process was reversen. The rapid increase of the Slovak popufation was mostly due to the influx of rural population to towns, the newcomers being mostly exclusively of Slovak nationality. :POPULATION STRJUCTU'RE Tow.n and c,e nsus year Slovaks Total % Magyars Total % Germans Total % Bratislava 1857 1880 1890 1900 1910 1930 4,600 7,273 a,709 10,7115 U,67G 60,013 14.5 15.7 17,2 16.7 15.3 5'8.7 2,500 7,270 10,4-S3 20;102 31,705 18,'890 7.8 15.7 20.6 31.4 41.7 16.9 .24!,732 30,440 311,404' 33,202 32,790 32,801 77.7 65.6 62.2 51.9 43.0 29.4 4,3719 10,3,1,1 9,7113 9,244 6,5417 42,24;5 39.2 40.9 40.4 23.9 15.4 74.0 2,500 10,007 10,4'21 25,996 33,350 111,504 22.5 3'9.8 43 .4 67.0 77.2 20.1 4,200 4,218 3•,891 3,'189 3,354 37.8 16.8 16.0 8.9 7.4 5.2 3,403' 5,538 4,929 Ul,462 40. 7 36.9 30.'l 92:.4 2,990 7,'2119 9,754 96'1 35. 7 47.8 59.7 4.8 1,969 2,3'12 1,636 5'1>'8 23.6 15.3 10.2 2.8 1,41'9 ·565 449 2,781 54.3 20.4 16.2 ·86.0 1;127 2,167 2:,289 255 43.3 78.5 82.3 7.9 55 3'1 4'2 197 2.4 1.1 1.5 6,1 3,403 3,381 2,181 6,027 89,2 73•,8 ~-0 97.0 200 l •,1 07 2,300 5.2 24.2 2:15 15'8 51.>1 2.5 4'2 32 T78 785 5,106 7,449 8,7512: 4,974 81'.0 88.3 91.7 44.6 423 688 5,956 12.3 9.3 7.2 53.5 856 1,000 1,,6 75 8,71•5 18.0 10.4 13Jl 64.L 3,,6 09 8,1'87 10,634: 4,007 75.0 87.0 83.6 29.4 333 249 428 889 ------------ Kol;ic,e ''' 1857 1880 1890 1900 1<910 1930 3,446 "Ruthenes omitted Nitra 1880 1900 1910 1930 Jelsava 1880 1900 1910 H~30 Trebisov 1880 1900 1910 11930 88 5.6 2.0 0.9 0.5 Levice 1880 1900 11910 1930 198 199 214 6.7 2.4 2.,1 1..9 Lucenec 1880 1900 1910 1930 7.0 2.6 3.3 6.5 SLOVAKIA 28 Rimavska Sobota 1:880 1900 1910 1930 443 322 468 2,939 9.5 5.3 6.9 44.8 4,102 5,424' 6,1199 3,504 ,88.0 '93.5 91.8 53.4 124 Roznava lr880 1900 1910 1930 400 233 406 2,506 9.9 4.5 6.3 42.7 3,884' 4,7,68 5,886 3,211 83,.8 92.2 9lr.2 54.4 Nove Zamky 1880 1900 1'910 1930 1,466 822 964 9,561 14.3 6.2 6.1 47.8 7,189 12,1,97 14,838 10,193 77.7 91.3 91.6 51.0 1 69 2.5 .1.2 91 116 1.8 259 173 159 170 6.3 3.3 2.5 2.9 813 8.0 2.5 2.3 1.2 340 3'77 256 u REFERENCE S: 1 Documents British Foreign Policy, Third Series, Vol. III, p . 225. 2 Survey of International Afifairs rn38, Vol. Ill p. 105. 3 Cf. Tiso's conversation with Ribbentrop on October 19, 1~38, where Tiso said, "The Sl'ovarks hav,e determined and could pr,ove that the 1910 sta'tistks were incorrect a,n d t'hat they even had been falsified ." (Doc. Ger. F1or. Pol. D., Vol. IV, p. 87.) 4 The Law of Nati-onaiities (Act 44/ 1864) is rerpr:oduiced in R. W. Seton-Watson: Racial Problems in Hungary (Consrtahle, London, 1908), p. 4'299-4'33. Pr:ofessor Seton-Watson gives also a penetrating a,nd· scholarly a,na.lysis of this Act. poin'ting out the differences between lofty t,h eories a;nd l ow practices. 5 This practi,ce was followed till 1941, when for the first time in Magyar history the nationalirty of the inhaibi'tants otf Hurugary was ascertained. 6 A story was told in those days (most priolbalbly apocryiphal) that after th.is point,blank-Jired reminder of Tiso, a memlber c:,f the Hungarian delegation stood up an'd, instead of a long reply, answered in Magyar: "Igazad, s6g,or, de senrki sem .sLszi" (Y:ou are righit, brother, rbu't rnJlbody will believe you). 7 The litalians were eager to placarte the Magyars at somebody else's e~pense. The Slovaks knew v,e ry ,w ell tha t they could no t expect any und,erstanding for their point c:,f view fr:om the cynical Ciano. Jin their efforts to assure bett er terms they concenitr<ated exclusively on Ribbentrop. Unforituna-tely 'he had more will than skill to help them. 8 StaHstical data for this part oif the article come mostly from "Magyar s:zlta:tisztikai kozlemenyek" and "Annuaire statistique de la Repu blique Tchecoslorvaque." 9 The advance of magyarization in 1'880-1910 and the tur.n o,f the tide after 1'919 are best soon from the sta'tistical data taJbulated in .Aippen<lix. 10 "Prager Presse," November 4, 1938. - No need to say that Tiso was basing his statement on Czecho-Slovak ofific'ial statistics. 1 1 1  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Statistics and Politics Description An account of the resource Francis Vnuk Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 21-28 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vnuk, František, 1926- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1811530be09d5420a61118cdcf74b327.pdf 889916433ca1d280bd2acb4f4cdcb461 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- �30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March �SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, �32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- �SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return �SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial �35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British �36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. � SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- �30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March �SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, �32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- �SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return �SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial �35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British �36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- 30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, 32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial 35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British 36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wilson and T. G. Masaryk Description An account of the resource Joseph Bouša Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 29-36 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bouša, Joseph Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0464996abeca82de4c8feeb05af912a5.pdf 4995937ff4152d7aa386146fa0962741 PDF Text Text 36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. �SLOVAKIA 37 Over the years several "authorities" and "eminent" scholars and journalists have repeated the distortions, false claims, and deliberate untruths of the propagandists, perhaps harboring the thought that time will eventually transform them into truths. Citing the works of such "experts" another genera:tion of scholars and journalists and researchers will arise, quoting these highly questionable "eminent" historians. Thus are errors, distortions, halftruths, and outright falsehoods propagated, while their authors blatantly proclaim that "truth prevails" (pravda vitezi). According to Jaroslav Vlcek, accepted authority on Slovak and Czech literature, the Czech language was the medium of Slova:k literature for over 300 years. The claim is made in his "Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej" (History of Slovak literature) which was published by the Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) of Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1923. Vlcek came from a Czech family that had settled in Slova:kia. He was a follower of T. G. Masaryk and his socatlled Hlasists, the men associated with the periodical "Hlas" (Voice) which promoted the Czech fiction of a united ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation. This claim, which cannot stand up under historical criticism because it has no basis in historical fact, is a favorite of Prague regimes and Czech propagandists. Vlcek himself refutes the claim in his work, but this fact has strangely escaped the notice of practically all English writers of Czecho-Slovak or Czech-Slovak history. In Vlcek's "Dejiny" we read: ''The Hussites brought to u s not onty the din of savage battle, but also a new faith, a new communal language. . . . The Czech language made itsellf at home amo:rJJg the Slorvaks as their literary language ... The exclusive reign of the Czech language lasts for three hundred years from the first Hussite colonization" Cl). "From the fifteenth to the eighteenth cent ury, Hussitism and Pl'otestantism connect Slovak literary creations formaHy with Czech literature. It is not until the end of the eighteerrth century that Bernola!k, and in the middle of the nineteenth cent ury Stur, Hiodza, and Hurlban lay the origins and foundat ions of an independent Slovak literature" (2). "Material, which would clari£y the position of the Czech langua,ge in our midst in the fifteent h century, is thus far for �38 SLOVAKIA the most part laying in the dust of arohives. But even fr.om that bit that has been brought to light, it is safe to say that the Czech language from the second half of the fifteenth cenury is the Ian• guage of the autonomous Slovak authorities and later even the language of the counties and castles" (3). The "Dejiny" even proclaim Czech as the national language in Slovakia : "From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century the national language in Slovakia flows in a threefold current: 1. Printed works, for the most part religious books, and here again for the most part Evangelical (Lutheran), hold to the language of the Kralice Bible; 2. Documents, records, municipal and private books, therefore the written word, more or less including native (Slovak) words and forms in place of the literary Czech forms; 3. The common uneducated people ait home, in the field and in their family circles, converse by means of the inherited, live language of their forefathers - in Slovak" ( 4). Now then, the first current of the "national language in Slovakia" - according to Vlcek's "Dejiny" - is the language of the Kra1ice Bible, i.e., pure Czech and nothing else; the second current is Czech again, interspersed with Slovak words and phrases; and only the third current of this national language is made up of the "live" language of the common people. Informed persons, Slovaks in particular, know that such statements and claims tend to serve especially the political interests of those who claim there is no Slovak nation and, consequently, no Slovak language. We know that they served the interests of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where they claimed that the Slovak nation was the invention of the Magyars and the Slovaks and the Czechs were the same. Vlcek, an authority on Slovak and Czech literature, was also a follower of Masaryk and his '" Hlasists." After the estaiblishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Vlcek was named director of the Matica Slovenska. It was under his directorship that an attempt was made to remake the Slovak language into Czech. When he died, the Czech Anton Stefanek, Minister of Education, wrote these significant words about Vlcek: �SLOVAKIA 39 "Very few people knO!W, particularly fNlllll the young gener.ation, that along,side Ma-sacytk it wa,s he (Week) who was the spirit of the 'Hla,s' (the or,g,a n of the Slovak Pan-Czechists, 1008·1004. - ed. note) and molded, so to 51Peak, the young 'Hlasists' .... J . Vlcek is not an ordinary historiain, who mechanically collects scientific matertial to compile new 'boak,s. Into e·v ery one of his works he inserts a certain tendency to seriv,e his nation (the Czech nation - ed.). Along,side his strict s!Cien•tific dbjectiv1ty and his serious respect for Slovaik sentiments he al,ways knew h-OIW to include in his boo~ and h1s articles the eDfort to unite a'Ild not to further divide the Slovaks and Czechs" (5). Let us now research the period of 300 years during which the Czech language reigned exclusively in Slovakia. History teMs us that the Hussites came to Slovakia the first time in 1421; up to 1440 their visits were predatory excursions. They did not come to Slovakia to settle down. The power of the Hussites was broken with their defeat near Lipjariy in 1434. They remained in Slovakia a longer time when Jiskra came to power. On a mandate from Queen Elizarbeth, in the defense of Ladislaus the Posthumous, Jiskra ruled the greater pa:rt of Slovakia from the end of 1439 to the death of Ladislaus in 1457. Mathias, newly elected King of Hungary, began to wage war against Jiskra in 1458, defeating him in 1461. Jiskra was in power in Slovakia from 1440. Let us, then, begin our research of Vlcek's "three hundred years." Vlcek tells us in his "Dejiny" that "with the death of Matthew Cak of Trencin, called Dominus Vagi et Tatrae, at the begi,n ning of the fourteerrtJh century, falls even this monument of Slavalk independence. The g11ant priruc1pa-lity of Nitra (Matyas foldje") bl-end·s into a close po!Hical union with the kingdom ·of Hungary, and our natiorral life loses itself in the common diplomatic ton1gue, the organ of the Ghureh and state, literature ~md society .... "(6). It is generaHy known that Latin was the official language of the Church and state, literature and society, not only during Matthew Ca.k's time, not only during the 300 years of the imagined "exclusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia," but even many years after those 300, when German and Magyar finally replaced it in the Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms respectively. Joseph Dobrovsky, the "father of modern Czech literature," wrote his main work in Latin in 1822. In Trnava, Slovakia, records were kept in Latin up to 1848 (7). �40 SLOVAKIA According to Vlcek, it was not only in official and church circles that Czech took hold in S4ovakia, but even in popular literature of the fifteenth century: "In popular literature Czech is perhaps forcing its way with the same success, even though there exist no positive examples of this." But what kind of "exclusive reign of the Czech language" can that be when it "perhaps" was forcing its way in popular literature for which there exist "no positive examples"? The activities of the Hussites and the influence of Jiskra in Slovakia may have prompted Vlcek to say what he did. Then, however, we would have to assume that Vlcek was not very well informed on the Hussites. We know, as Vlcek must have known, that Jiskra's army, including only the "remnanits" of Hussites, was made up of for the most part of adventurers of many nationalities (8). Furthe:vmore, the Hussite expeditions into Slovakia could not have any influence on the literary language of the Slovaks because of their very nature. There were long intervals between expeditions and the Hussites held Trnava and Skalica only two years (9). The Hussites came to rob, and rob they did, leaving with their plunder. The Czech author Kulhanek adds that Jiskra's plunderers were a despicable lot which, six wears after Lipany, was composed of "those depredatory bands" which had plundered the Czech lands. Vlcek refutes his own statement about the "exclusive reign of Czech" when he tells us that "the sixteenth century extended the field of the Czech language still more. There came the Lutheran Reformation, the national churches and schools" (10). If the Czech language was the exclusive vehicle of Slovak literature in the fifteenth century, how could it possibly spread even more in the sixteenth? Vlcek would want us to believe that Czech even invaded the "national churches and schools" with Luther's Reformation and yet, on the same page, he tells us that these schools were "Latin-Slovak!" The fact is that they were not even Slovak, because, excepting religion, everything else was taught in Latin. Vlcek himself gives evidence of this (11). The Reformation of the sixteenth century did not help the "national churches and schools" in Bohemia and Slovakia. V. Flajshans, noted Czech author and professor of �SLOVAKIA 41 Czech literature at the Prague Charles University, deplored Luther's Reformation for the very fact that everywhere it took hold in Bohemia, the German language did too (12). At the beginning of the sixteenth century not Czech but German came to Slovakia; it took hold almost exclusively on~y in the German towns and only in the second half of the sixteenth century did it begin to spread to Slovak settlements. Vlcek himself names many authors who wrote in Latin in the seventeenth century, saying that Protestantism was "shattering the shackles of Latin" (13). Moreover, the end of the eighteenth century, he tells us, "brings to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition" (14). Since, according to Vlcek, Latin, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, had become the linguistic medium of "the Church and state, literature and society in Hungary," and then that "the end of the eighteeDlth century brought to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition," we must conclude that his statement in regard to the "e~clusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia for 300 years" is irresponsible if not an outright fabrication. After the disastrous Battle of White Mountain (1620), the Czech language was dying in its own homeland, as stated by Vlcek(15). On the other hand, according to Skultety, Latin was dulling the Slovaks nationally from the sixteenth century for almost 200 years (16). "The Hussites brought us (the Slovaks) a new communal language," which became domesticated or was quickly adopted by the Silovaks as their literary medium, according to Vlcek. But the very fact that the Czech language was a "new" language, it must have been foreign to the .Slovaks and, hence, could not have become domesticated in the land of the Slovaks. H. Marczali tells us, for example, that very few land barons (magnates) could read and write at that time: "Of the Hungarian magnates only the Primate of Hungary, Thomas Bakac, knew how to sign his name to the Bratislava Peace Agreement (Nov. 7, 1491) with Maximilian, the German Emperor; Stephen Bathori, Ladisllaus Guthi, Ladislaus Rozgoni - all members of the higher nobility - could not write" (17). History tells us that Hun- �42 SLOVAKIA gary was in a chaotic, rebellious ferment during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - a condition which could not possibly favor the progress of literature and culture of the nationaJlities of Hungary. The fact is that there was no Slovak literature, and, under the circumstances, could not be during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rebellions and wars usually disrupt literary activity and cultural life. Vlcek could not have reported the fact that at that time only priests and monks did any writing and even then only when they hadl no sword in hand. The fact that he did not leads us to the conclusion that Vlcek was interested in promoting the fable about "the exclusive reign of Czech as the literary medium of the Slovaks for 300 years." Chauvinistic Czechs and pro-Czech historians and journalists still propagate Vlcek's fable to "prove" that the Slovaks and Czechs at one time were ethnically one nation. In his "Dejiny" the author devotes the first 18 lines to record superficially the general history of the fifteenth century, and then a total of 27 lines to the entire literary activity of that period. This in itself ought to be sufficient for us to form an idea of the veracity of Vlcek's statement in regard to the "exdusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia.'' The Prague University, founded by Charles IV in 1348, is credited by Vlcek for the "refreshening of Slovak spiritual life" (18). It had practically no effect on the spiritual or national life of the Czechs themselves, hence it is highly questionable that the university had any great influence on Slovak national life of the fourteenth century. The nationality concept at that time was entirely foreign, unknown(19). National consciousness is usually intimately connected with the fate of a language, and the fate of the Czech language in the fourteent h and previous centuries was indeed very; sad(20). History tells us that the last Premyslide rulers (1253i 1306) unified the Bohemian kingdom, but these very kings cared the least for the Czech language and for Czech na.1 tional consciousness (21). German dominated at the court of Otokar II (1253-1278); the nobility and towns, following �SLOVAKIA 43 Otokar's example, also used the German language. An old saying has it tha,t Otokar warned the Czechs: "one shall not be able to see a single Czech on the Prague bridge." In the sixteenth century this warning made the rounds in this form: "A Czech on the Prague bridge will be as rare as a deer with golden antlers"! Otokar, it is recorded, threatened the Czechs in this manner as he took off to fight Rudolph in 1278 (22). Wenceslaus II (1278-1305), son of Otokar II, of all things, became a German poet. Brought up in Germany, Wenceslaus followed in the footsteps of his father, Otokar II, and his grandfather Wenceslaus I, both of whom had forced Czechs out of several towns in favor of the Germans. He could not write "in the langua,ge of the despised men, the (Czech) language in which no one wrote up to that time" (23). Such was the condition of the Czech language up to of Hus. The Czechs, we know, indulge extravaadvent the gantly in the glory of Charles IV, "the father of our country" and the founder of the Prague University. The fact is that Charles IV was a German educated in France. When he was called to occupy the throne of Bohemia he did not know a single word of Czech (24). The teaching medium of the Prague University was Latin. If the University was founded in the Czech interest, the Czech language undoubtedly would have found its way into science before 1499, i.e., 120 years after Charles !V's death. There would then be no need for Hus to fight for the equality of the Czech language in the fifteenth century. Charles was succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus IV (1378-1419), who favored Latin and German. In 1394 the Union of Nobles had him arrested and forced him to issue documents also in Czech. Hus himself, until 1413, wrote in Latin (25). Under Charles IV, the Germans controlled the University. In the heat of the Hussite battle his son and successor, Wences'laus IV, sanctioned the reorganization of the University (Decree of Kutna Hora, Jan. 18, 1409), to give the Czechs "a ruling voice in their own university" (26). The result was disastrous for the University. Losing their influence, the Germans left the University of Prague, May 16, 1409, to found their own �44 SLOVAKIA university at Leipzig. With the exodus of the Germans the university lost its European significance and the Hussite era practically ruined it, reducing everything in the Czechsettled lands in Bohemia and a great part of Moravia to dust and ashes (27). As a result no examinations were held by the university from 1420 to 1428, a situation that happened frequently until 1526, so that Czech students had to continue their studies elsewhere. Flajshans tells us that as late as 1554 all twelve professors of the Prague University did not have together the salary of one professor of the University of Paris (28). The same author begins the chapter on the overglorified "Hussite Century" (15th) with these words: "All the higher schools are Latin; all offi~ cial records and public documents were written in Latin; and Latin united all scholars of the whole world" (29). Concluding the same chapter, Flajshans says: "The cry of Viktorin cal!ling for diligent work in the field of the Czech language remained for a long time the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (30). Viktorin, who in 1495 was opposed to Czech in the law books of Prague, died in 1520. The historical truth is that Czech Hussitism was above all else a religious movement which had practically nothing in common with the "national spirit" of the Czechs. Hussitism was not supported by the Prague University, but rather persecuted. That is why the adherents of Hus' teachings turned their hatred in the first instance against the univesity which they pillaged more than once, beating and throwing out the professors and bringing ruin upon it. The Czechs, the very people who should have nurtured and elevated the "Czech national and religious spirit," turned against the university ( 31) . They developed a new "national spirit" and strived to force it on their people. If the Prague University had practically no influence on the national life of the Czechs at that time, what influence could it possibly have on Slovak national life? The historical fact is that there is not a trace of Hussite literature in Slovakia from the fifteenth century(32). Like Jaroslav Vlcek, later historians, including S. Harrison Thomson of the University of Colorado, Robert J. Ker- �SLOVAKIA ner of the University of California, Joseph R. Roucek, of Hofstra College (1946), had the opportunity of writing objectively in regard to the matter at hand by seeking out available historical facts instead of relying on chauvinistic Czech propaganda. Professor S. Harrison Thomson, perhaps unable to see the forest for the trees, said this about the SloV'aks and Czechs and their respective languages: "The two peoples were originally so closely related as to be indistiruguishlalble, but geo,g,rap'lry and distance could easily have induced a separate political existence. The Magyar conquest made any such natural development illl!possible"(i33). ''The Slovaks therefore had no opporfonity to develop their own culture, written language, political institutions or social concepts in any independent way. Their relationship with the Ozechs, their brothers to the west, had, for all practical purposes, ceased to be a reality for them. This situation lasted nine centuries" (34). ''The great similarity of the vernacular lan.guages furnished an additional bond between the peoples of Bohemia and Slovakia" (35). "Political and military prestige combined with purely linguistic flexibility to make Czech rather than Slovak the lingua franca of a considera1b le region outside Bohemia. Written, Czec·h ,b ecame the language of the educated Slovaks, particularly if they had studied at Prague, and .remained such until the end of the 18th century(36). "It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence of this wide acceptance of Czech as the written langua-ge of the Slovaks during a period when Bohemia was free and Slovakia was ruled by Mag,y,ars. Tihe dialectical peculiarities that appear here and ther-e in Slovak document's did not alter the fundamental fact that Czech was accepted as the basic tongue of the tw;,. peoples(37). "The end result of the sojourn of the Hussite armies was not very considerable. In the first place their stay in Slovakia was relatively short, and in the second place we have incontrovertible evidence that the organization and powe1' of the Catholic Church in Slovakia was not noticeably disturbed at any time in the fifteenth century" (138). In his foreword, Professor Thomson warns the reader that the term "Czechoslovakia" has no political significance in his book; "it is used generally to designate the geographical entity lately known by that name." The professor may be coy and naive, but he is no fool. He knew what he was doing. Whether he likes it or not, the fact is that term, with or without the hyphen, is the name of a political entity. He warns the reader further that the �46 SLOVAKIA term "Bohemia" is also geographical "and in no wise an ethnic term." Nevertheless throughout his book he generally substitutes the term "CZECH kingdom"! What justification can there be for denying, ignoring, suppressing, or falsifying established historical facts? By the way, Thomson's "Czechoslovakia in European History" was awarded the "Czechoslovak State Prize" in December 1944, at a time when that state did not factually exist, the provisional (illegal) government of Dr. Edward Benes thus showing its appreciation to the professor. Indeed, the same professor who said in another "historical gem" edited by R. J. Kerner of the University of California: "But to Premysl Otokar I (]19741230) must be assigned the responsibility for inviting the Gerlll!an immigration. En,couraged by the court, many Czech nobles had married German women ; some of the best positionis of the Church in Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by German clerics; German minnesingers were in high favor t-0 the royal court and at the courts of the richer nobles"(39). Gerald Druce, "authority on Czech science," belongs in Thomson's category. In Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" he had this to say in regard to the matter at hand: "The University of Prague, the oldest in Central Europe, had been founded in 1348 by Charles IV and had been placed upon a secure footing by his successor, Vaclav IV, by the Kutna Hora decrees in 1409. During the Middle Ages the study of the natural sciences flourished in Bo'hemia, as is shown by the number of herbals and contemporary mineralogical and alchemical wol'ks in the Czech langua•ge. Indeed, toward the close of the sixteenth centry Prague was recogn,ized as an important center of learning"(40). The tendency is quite obvious. Significant it is, too, that Druce, like all other pro-Czech propagandists, finds it very convenient to offer no proof for his "historical" statements. Professor Joseph R. Roucek, being a Czech, could allow himself a bit more rope by raising the Czech banner "Pravda vitezi." Writing about the Slovaks and Czechs and their languages, he adds to the confusion ( emphasis here as elsewhere being mine. - P.A.H): "CZECH refers to the principal people or language found in Bohemia and Moravia. SL-OVAK is the name given to the eas• ternmost division of the Czech-speaking people. Protestant leaders and philologists have claimed that Slovak is merely Old �SLOVAKIA 47 Czech and have urged the use of Czech as the sole written Ian• guage"{ 41 ). "The difficulty of intercourse with the Czechs has produced a divergence in what was originally a common language. The Slovak and Czech :forms of the language dilffer in certain minor points to the present day, like two dialects of the same tongue spoken locally"(412). 'IH is eertain, at any rate, that toward the end of the Premyslid era (1'305) the Czech language was already being adQ1Pted by scholars, that it moved from the villages, towns, and castles into books, and that it even began to replace both Latin and German"(43) "The German language (in the time of Hus - the latter part of the 14th century and first quarter of lsth) was predominant both in pwblic offices and in the churches and schools throughout the country"(44). But - as a result oif the Hussrte movement - "the Czech language and literature began to predominate"(45). Nevertheless "The Slovaks remained a separate and distinct people, even though cut off from intercourse with other Slav peoples. They remained mainly Catholic and developed their language as a dialect of the Czech language"(46). Joseph Lettrich, author of a "History of Modern Slovakia," belongs in a category by himself. As a Slovak he is opposed to Slovak freedom and independence. The Slovaks, according to Lettrich, could not exist without the Czechs. Having collaborated with Benes and the Communists, Lettrich is now on vacation from politics in the United States, still serving the interests of the Czechs as a prominent member of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" - the organization of former members of the Communistdominated National Front Government of Czecho-Slovakia (1945-1948). Blinded by his prejudices and ignorant of history, Lettrich had this to say about his own people and their language "When a university was founded in Pra•g ue by King Charle,s N in 11314!8, numerous Slovaks werut to study there, and several became prdfessors at that un,iversity. In this manner the cultural relations between Slovak'S and Czechs, which had been forcibly interrupted, were re-established. They were to play a vital role in the spiritual development of the tJwo peoples. The most powerful influence that united them was the written Czechoslovak language which continued to be common to both. In, the first half of the fi,fteenth century the armies o'f the Czech Hussite warriors penetrated into Slovakia .... The Hussite forces ... introduced a new spirit of independence from Rome. Above all, they once again strengthened the ties of a common language and culture between Czechs and Slovaks"(47). �48 SLOVAKIA Lettrich, like other Slovak renegades and pro-Czech scribes, tried to remake history in the image of "Masaryk's interpretation" of Czech history. The ancient Czechs had the motto: "The truth of God prevails" (pravda Bozi vitezi). Masaryk, following the example of the radical Hussites, threw out God and made the motto read "Truth prevai'ls." Waving Masaryk's banner high, his followers continue in his "interpretation" of the national spirit and the history of the Czechs, misrepresenting and distorting historical facts. Having abandoned Divinely imposed mandates of the moral law, they now seek refuge and justification in the counterfeit doctrine of unbridled liberalism. Whatever might be said to the contrary, the truth is that "Such phrases as 'Czechoslovak language' might be used for the benefit of the outside world and in constitutional and other state documents, but the fact remains that to the vast majority of both peoples (Czechs and Slovaks), the idea remained a pure fiction, and the languages, like the peoples, were, in solid fact, two and not one" (4'8). REFERENCES 1. Jaroslav Vlcek: DEJmY SLOVElNISKJEJ LITElRATURY, 192'3, 1pp. 5,6. 2. Vlcek - p. 2. 3. Vlcek - p. 6. 4. Vlcek - p. 25. 5. SLOVENSKY DENNiK, 1922, No. 17. 6. Vlcek - pp. 4-5 7. Jozef Skultety: O &LOV AKOOH, p. 59. 8. !Kulhanek: KRONIKA CESKOSILOVElNSiKA, pp. 001~62. 9. M. Misik: HUSITI NA SLOVL0NS~U, p. 37. 10. Vlcek - p . 8. t:111. Vlcek - p. 8. 1'2. V. Flajsha11s: NAS JAZYK MA'DERSKY, p. 283. '113. Vlcek - p. 1.2. 14. Vlcek - p,24 . .115. Vlcek - p. 23. 1'6. Jozef Skultety: NElHAN'DE L'UD MOJ! p. 82. 17. Henry Ma1.1czali: MAGYAIROR!SZAG TORTENIETE, Vol. l, p. 367. 18. Vlcek - pp. 5-6. 19. Skultety: 0 SLOVAKO OH, p. '170. 20. Karol Tri\.ovski: K RECOVIEJ OTAZKE SLOVArfroV, ;1.937, p. 23. 21. Flajshans, - i;>. ·1163. 22. IFlajshans - PJl,69. 23. IFlajshans - p. 170. '24. IFla,jshans - p. 209. '25. Flajshans - p. 220. '26. S. Harrison Thomson: CZEOHOSL0 VAKIA IN EUIRO!PEIA!N HliSTORY, 1M4; p. 116. 1 �SLOVAKIA 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 4Jl. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. iFlajshans - p. 259. ,F la,j shans - p. 260. [Flajshans - p. 217. Flajshans - p. 265. Flajshans - p. 259. Tri\.ovski - p. 47. Thomson p. 199. Thomson - p. 200. Thomson - p. 206. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 208. CZEJOHOSLOV.Ax;1iA, edited by Robert J. Kerner, 1'949; 02lEJOHOSLOVAK1iA, Kerner - p. 316. Joseph R. Roucek: CEJN'l1RAlrEAlSTEJRN EUROIPE, 1946; Roucek - p. 63. IRoucek - p. 64. IRoucek - p. 66. iRoucek - p. 69. Roucek - p. 81. Jozef Lettrich: HISTORY OF MOIDERN SLOVA!KIA, pp. 21,22. C. A. Macartney: HUNGARY ANiD HIE)R SUOOESSORS, 49 p . 13. p. 61. 11955; 11937 ; p. 1·26. • • • WHO SAID IT? ''However close the original bonds between the Slovaks and the Czechs) imay have been, the ten, centuries dw:ing which the Slovaks formed a part of the kingdom of Hun:gary, w:hile the Czechs were subjected to German and Austrian influences, naturally brought about a marked dififerentation between the two peoples. Even the physical stocks cannot be so closely related today as they were a thousand years ago, for the Czeohs aTe todlay inextricalbly mingled with German elements, while the Slovak mountaineers have retained their racial purity to a larger degree .... There is, h01Wever, a noti.t:ealb le doifference both in physical appearance and in character between, the dour, efificient, but somewhiat ungainly Czech, and the airy, talkative, hwppy-go-lucky Slovak." - C. A. Macartney: HUNGAIRY AND HER SUOCEJSSORIS, London, L937) . • • • ' Iif a single dynasty had united both peoples ~Czechs and Slovaks) in a permanent, or at least an enduring union, a Czechoslovak nationality would assuredly have been formed and with a Czecho•slovak language - any minor dialectal diff.erences which existed would have been smoothed out. This did not happen; and while the Slavs of Bohemia developed the ,Czech nationality and language, to which the intermed,i ate dialects of Moravila gravitated, the Slovaks under Hungarian rule, not only developed along different lines from the Czechs, but were not even able to form a single literary language with them." - CC. A. Macartney: HUNGA!RY ANlD HiElR SUCOESSORS, London, 1937). � 36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. �SLOVAKIA 37 Over the years several "authorities" and "eminent" scholars and journalists have repeated the distortions, false claims, and deliberate untruths of the propagandists, perhaps harboring the thought that time will eventually transform them into truths. Citing the works of such "experts" another genera:tion of scholars and journalists and researchers will arise, quoting these highly questionable "eminent" historians. Thus are errors, distortions, halftruths, and outright falsehoods propagated, while their authors blatantly proclaim that "truth prevails" (pravda vitezi). According to Jaroslav Vlcek, accepted authority on Slovak and Czech literature, the Czech language was the medium of Slova:k literature for over 300 years. The claim is made in his "Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej" (History of Slovak literature) which was published by the Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) of Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1923. Vlcek came from a Czech family that had settled in Slova:kia. He was a follower of T. G. Masaryk and his socatlled Hlasists, the men associated with the periodical "Hlas" (Voice) which promoted the Czech fiction of a united ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation. This claim, which cannot stand up under historical criticism because it has no basis in historical fact, is a favorite of Prague regimes and Czech propagandists. Vlcek himself refutes the claim in his work, but this fact has strangely escaped the notice of practically all English writers of Czecho-Slovak or Czech-Slovak history. In Vlcek's "Dejiny" we read: ''The Hussites brought to u s not onty the din of savage battle, but also a new faith, a new communal language. . . . The Czech language made itsellf at home amo:rJJg the Slorvaks as their literary language ... The exclusive reign of the Czech language lasts for three hundred years from the first Hussite colonization" Cl). "From the fifteenth to the eighteenth cent ury, Hussitism and Pl'otestantism connect Slovak literary creations formaHy with Czech literature. It is not until the end of the eighteerrth century that Bernola!k, and in the middle of the nineteenth cent ury Stur, Hiodza, and Hurlban lay the origins and foundat ions of an independent Slovak literature" (2). "Material, which would clari£y the position of the Czech langua,ge in our midst in the fifteent h century, is thus far for �38 SLOVAKIA the most part laying in the dust of arohives. But even fr.om that bit that has been brought to light, it is safe to say that the Czech language from the second half of the fifteenth cenury is the Ian• guage of the autonomous Slovak authorities and later even the language of the counties and castles" (3). The "Dejiny" even proclaim Czech as the national language in Slovakia : "From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century the national language in Slovakia flows in a threefold current: 1. Printed works, for the most part religious books, and here again for the most part Evangelical (Lutheran), hold to the language of the Kralice Bible; 2. Documents, records, municipal and private books, therefore the written word, more or less including native (Slovak) words and forms in place of the literary Czech forms; 3. The common uneducated people ait home, in the field and in their family circles, converse by means of the inherited, live language of their forefathers - in Slovak" ( 4). Now then, the first current of the "national language in Slovakia" - according to Vlcek's "Dejiny" - is the language of the Kra1ice Bible, i.e., pure Czech and nothing else; the second current is Czech again, interspersed with Slovak words and phrases; and only the third current of this national language is made up of the "live" language of the common people. Informed persons, Slovaks in particular, know that such statements and claims tend to serve especially the political interests of those who claim there is no Slovak nation and, consequently, no Slovak language. We know that they served the interests of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where they claimed that the Slovak nation was the invention of the Magyars and the Slovaks and the Czechs were the same. Vlcek, an authority on Slovak and Czech literature, was also a follower of Masaryk and his '" Hlasists." After the estaiblishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Vlcek was named director of the Matica Slovenska. It was under his directorship that an attempt was made to remake the Slovak language into Czech. When he died, the Czech Anton Stefanek, Minister of Education, wrote these significant words about Vlcek: �SLOVAKIA 39 "Very few people knO!W, particularly fNlllll the young gener.ation, that along,side Ma-sacytk it wa,s he (Week) who was the spirit of the 'Hla,s' (the or,g,a n of the Slovak Pan-Czechists, 1008·1004. - ed. note) and molded, so to 51Peak, the young 'Hlasists' .... J . Vlcek is not an ordinary historiain, who mechanically collects scientific matertial to compile new 'boak,s. Into e·v ery one of his works he inserts a certain tendency to seriv,e his nation (the Czech nation - ed.). Along,side his strict s!Cien•tific dbjectiv1ty and his serious respect for Slovaik sentiments he al,ways knew h-OIW to include in his boo~ and h1s articles the eDfort to unite a'Ild not to further divide the Slovaks and Czechs" (5). Let us now research the period of 300 years during which the Czech language reigned exclusively in Slovakia. History teMs us that the Hussites came to Slovakia the first time in 1421; up to 1440 their visits were predatory excursions. They did not come to Slovakia to settle down. The power of the Hussites was broken with their defeat near Lipjariy in 1434. They remained in Slovakia a longer time when Jiskra came to power. On a mandate from Queen Elizarbeth, in the defense of Ladislaus the Posthumous, Jiskra ruled the greater pa:rt of Slovakia from the end of 1439 to the death of Ladislaus in 1457. Mathias, newly elected King of Hungary, began to wage war against Jiskra in 1458, defeating him in 1461. Jiskra was in power in Slovakia from 1440. Let us, then, begin our research of Vlcek's "three hundred years." Vlcek tells us in his "Dejiny" that "with the death of Matthew Cak of Trencin, called Dominus Vagi et Tatrae, at the begi,n ning of the fourteerrtJh century, falls even this monument of Slavalk independence. The g11ant priruc1pa-lity of Nitra (Matyas foldje") bl-end·s into a close po!Hical union with the kingdom ·of Hungary, and our natiorral life loses itself in the common diplomatic ton1gue, the organ of the Ghureh and state, literature ~md society .... "(6). It is generaHy known that Latin was the official language of the Church and state, literature and society, not only during Matthew Ca.k's time, not only during the 300 years of the imagined "exclusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia," but even many years after those 300, when German and Magyar finally replaced it in the Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms respectively. Joseph Dobrovsky, the "father of modern Czech literature," wrote his main work in Latin in 1822. In Trnava, Slovakia, records were kept in Latin up to 1848 (7). �40 SLOVAKIA According to Vlcek, it was not only in official and church circles that Czech took hold in S4ovakia, but even in popular literature of the fifteenth century: "In popular literature Czech is perhaps forcing its way with the same success, even though there exist no positive examples of this." But what kind of "exclusive reign of the Czech language" can that be when it "perhaps" was forcing its way in popular literature for which there exist "no positive examples"? The activities of the Hussites and the influence of Jiskra in Slovakia may have prompted Vlcek to say what he did. Then, however, we would have to assume that Vlcek was not very well informed on the Hussites. We know, as Vlcek must have known, that Jiskra's army, including only the "remnanits" of Hussites, was made up of for the most part of adventurers of many nationalities (8). Furthe:vmore, the Hussite expeditions into Slovakia could not have any influence on the literary language of the Slovaks because of their very nature. There were long intervals between expeditions and the Hussites held Trnava and Skalica only two years (9). The Hussites came to rob, and rob they did, leaving with their plunder. The Czech author Kulhanek adds that Jiskra's plunderers were a despicable lot which, six wears after Lipany, was composed of "those depredatory bands" which had plundered the Czech lands. Vlcek refutes his own statement about the "exclusive reign of Czech" when he tells us that "the sixteenth century extended the field of the Czech language still more. There came the Lutheran Reformation, the national churches and schools" (10). If the Czech language was the exclusive vehicle of Slovak literature in the fifteenth century, how could it possibly spread even more in the sixteenth? Vlcek would want us to believe that Czech even invaded the "national churches and schools" with Luther's Reformation and yet, on the same page, he tells us that these schools were "Latin-Slovak!" The fact is that they were not even Slovak, because, excepting religion, everything else was taught in Latin. Vlcek himself gives evidence of this (11). The Reformation of the sixteenth century did not help the "national churches and schools" in Bohemia and Slovakia. V. Flajshans, noted Czech author and professor of �SLOVAKIA 41 Czech literature at the Prague Charles University, deplored Luther's Reformation for the very fact that everywhere it took hold in Bohemia, the German language did too (12). At the beginning of the sixteenth century not Czech but German came to Slovakia; it took hold almost exclusively on~y in the German towns and only in the second half of the sixteenth century did it begin to spread to Slovak settlements. Vlcek himself names many authors who wrote in Latin in the seventeenth century, saying that Protestantism was "shattering the shackles of Latin" (13). Moreover, the end of the eighteenth century, he tells us, "brings to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition" (14). Since, according to Vlcek, Latin, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, had become the linguistic medium of "the Church and state, literature and society in Hungary," and then that "the end of the eighteeDlth century brought to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition," we must conclude that his statement in regard to the "e~clusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia for 300 years" is irresponsible if not an outright fabrication. After the disastrous Battle of White Mountain (1620), the Czech language was dying in its own homeland, as stated by Vlcek(15). On the other hand, according to Skultety, Latin was dulling the Slovaks nationally from the sixteenth century for almost 200 years (16). "The Hussites brought us (the Slovaks) a new communal language," which became domesticated or was quickly adopted by the Silovaks as their literary medium, according to Vlcek. But the very fact that the Czech language was a "new" language, it must have been foreign to the .Slovaks and, hence, could not have become domesticated in the land of the Slovaks. H. Marczali tells us, for example, that very few land barons (magnates) could read and write at that time: "Of the Hungarian magnates only the Primate of Hungary, Thomas Bakac, knew how to sign his name to the Bratislava Peace Agreement (Nov. 7, 1491) with Maximilian, the German Emperor; Stephen Bathori, Ladisllaus Guthi, Ladislaus Rozgoni - all members of the higher nobility - could not write" (17). History tells us that Hun- �42 SLOVAKIA gary was in a chaotic, rebellious ferment during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - a condition which could not possibly favor the progress of literature and culture of the nationaJlities of Hungary. The fact is that there was no Slovak literature, and, under the circumstances, could not be during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rebellions and wars usually disrupt literary activity and cultural life. Vlcek could not have reported the fact that at that time only priests and monks did any writing and even then only when they hadl no sword in hand. The fact that he did not leads us to the conclusion that Vlcek was interested in promoting the fable about "the exclusive reign of Czech as the literary medium of the Slovaks for 300 years." Chauvinistic Czechs and pro-Czech historians and journalists still propagate Vlcek's fable to "prove" that the Slovaks and Czechs at one time were ethnically one nation. In his "Dejiny" the author devotes the first 18 lines to record superficially the general history of the fifteenth century, and then a total of 27 lines to the entire literary activity of that period. This in itself ought to be sufficient for us to form an idea of the veracity of Vlcek's statement in regard to the "exdusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia.'' The Prague University, founded by Charles IV in 1348, is credited by Vlcek for the "refreshening of Slovak spiritual life" (18). It had practically no effect on the spiritual or national life of the Czechs themselves, hence it is highly questionable that the university had any great influence on Slovak national life of the fourteenth century. The nationality concept at that time was entirely foreign, unknown(19). National consciousness is usually intimately connected with the fate of a language, and the fate of the Czech language in the fourteent h and previous centuries was indeed very; sad(20). History tells us that the last Premyslide rulers (1253i 1306) unified the Bohemian kingdom, but these very kings cared the least for the Czech language and for Czech na.1 tional consciousness (21). German dominated at the court of Otokar II (1253-1278); the nobility and towns, following �SLOVAKIA 43 Otokar's example, also used the German language. An old saying has it tha,t Otokar warned the Czechs: "one shall not be able to see a single Czech on the Prague bridge." In the sixteenth century this warning made the rounds in this form: "A Czech on the Prague bridge will be as rare as a deer with golden antlers"! Otokar, it is recorded, threatened the Czechs in this manner as he took off to fight Rudolph in 1278 (22). Wenceslaus II (1278-1305), son of Otokar II, of all things, became a German poet. Brought up in Germany, Wenceslaus followed in the footsteps of his father, Otokar II, and his grandfather Wenceslaus I, both of whom had forced Czechs out of several towns in favor of the Germans. He could not write "in the langua,ge of the despised men, the (Czech) language in which no one wrote up to that time" (23). Such was the condition of the Czech language up to of Hus. The Czechs, we know, indulge extravaadvent the gantly in the glory of Charles IV, "the father of our country" and the founder of the Prague University. The fact is that Charles IV was a German educated in France. When he was called to occupy the throne of Bohemia he did not know a single word of Czech (24). The teaching medium of the Prague University was Latin. If the University was founded in the Czech interest, the Czech language undoubtedly would have found its way into science before 1499, i.e., 120 years after Charles !V's death. There would then be no need for Hus to fight for the equality of the Czech language in the fifteenth century. Charles was succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus IV (1378-1419), who favored Latin and German. In 1394 the Union of Nobles had him arrested and forced him to issue documents also in Czech. Hus himself, until 1413, wrote in Latin (25). Under Charles IV, the Germans controlled the University. In the heat of the Hussite battle his son and successor, Wences'laus IV, sanctioned the reorganization of the University (Decree of Kutna Hora, Jan. 18, 1409), to give the Czechs "a ruling voice in their own university" (26). The result was disastrous for the University. Losing their influence, the Germans left the University of Prague, May 16, 1409, to found their own �44 SLOVAKIA university at Leipzig. With the exodus of the Germans the university lost its European significance and the Hussite era practically ruined it, reducing everything in the Czechsettled lands in Bohemia and a great part of Moravia to dust and ashes (27). As a result no examinations were held by the university from 1420 to 1428, a situation that happened frequently until 1526, so that Czech students had to continue their studies elsewhere. Flajshans tells us that as late as 1554 all twelve professors of the Prague University did not have together the salary of one professor of the University of Paris (28). The same author begins the chapter on the overglorified "Hussite Century" (15th) with these words: "All the higher schools are Latin; all offi~ cial records and public documents were written in Latin; and Latin united all scholars of the whole world" (29). Concluding the same chapter, Flajshans says: "The cry of Viktorin cal!ling for diligent work in the field of the Czech language remained for a long time the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (30). Viktorin, who in 1495 was opposed to Czech in the law books of Prague, died in 1520. The historical truth is that Czech Hussitism was above all else a religious movement which had practically nothing in common with the "national spirit" of the Czechs. Hussitism was not supported by the Prague University, but rather persecuted. That is why the adherents of Hus' teachings turned their hatred in the first instance against the univesity which they pillaged more than once, beating and throwing out the professors and bringing ruin upon it. The Czechs, the very people who should have nurtured and elevated the "Czech national and religious spirit," turned against the university ( 31) . They developed a new "national spirit" and strived to force it on their people. If the Prague University had practically no influence on the national life of the Czechs at that time, what influence could it possibly have on Slovak national life? The historical fact is that there is not a trace of Hussite literature in Slovakia from the fifteenth century(32). Like Jaroslav Vlcek, later historians, including S. Harrison Thomson of the University of Colorado, Robert J. Ker- �SLOVAKIA ner of the University of California, Joseph R. Roucek, of Hofstra College (1946), had the opportunity of writing objectively in regard to the matter at hand by seeking out available historical facts instead of relying on chauvinistic Czech propaganda. Professor S. Harrison Thomson, perhaps unable to see the forest for the trees, said this about the SloV'aks and Czechs and their respective languages: "The two peoples were originally so closely related as to be indistiruguishlalble, but geo,g,rap'lry and distance could easily have induced a separate political existence. The Magyar conquest made any such natural development illl!possible"(i33). ''The Slovaks therefore had no opporfonity to develop their own culture, written language, political institutions or social concepts in any independent way. Their relationship with the Ozechs, their brothers to the west, had, for all practical purposes, ceased to be a reality for them. This situation lasted nine centuries" (34). ''The great similarity of the vernacular lan.guages furnished an additional bond between the peoples of Bohemia and Slovakia" (35). "Political and military prestige combined with purely linguistic flexibility to make Czech rather than Slovak the lingua franca of a considera1b le region outside Bohemia. Written, Czec·h ,b ecame the language of the educated Slovaks, particularly if they had studied at Prague, and .remained such until the end of the 18th century(36). "It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence of this wide acceptance of Czech as the written langua-ge of the Slovaks during a period when Bohemia was free and Slovakia was ruled by Mag,y,ars. Tihe dialectical peculiarities that appear here and ther-e in Slovak document's did not alter the fundamental fact that Czech was accepted as the basic tongue of the tw;,. peoples(37). "The end result of the sojourn of the Hussite armies was not very considerable. In the first place their stay in Slovakia was relatively short, and in the second place we have incontrovertible evidence that the organization and powe1' of the Catholic Church in Slovakia was not noticeably disturbed at any time in the fifteenth century" (138). In his foreword, Professor Thomson warns the reader that the term "Czechoslovakia" has no political significance in his book; "it is used generally to designate the geographical entity lately known by that name." The professor may be coy and naive, but he is no fool. He knew what he was doing. Whether he likes it or not, the fact is that term, with or without the hyphen, is the name of a political entity. He warns the reader further that the �46 SLOVAKIA term "Bohemia" is also geographical "and in no wise an ethnic term." Nevertheless throughout his book he generally substitutes the term "CZECH kingdom"! What justification can there be for denying, ignoring, suppressing, or falsifying established historical facts? By the way, Thomson's "Czechoslovakia in European History" was awarded the "Czechoslovak State Prize" in December 1944, at a time when that state did not factually exist, the provisional (illegal) government of Dr. Edward Benes thus showing its appreciation to the professor. Indeed, the same professor who said in another "historical gem" edited by R. J. Kerner of the University of California: "But to Premysl Otokar I (]19741230) must be assigned the responsibility for inviting the Gerlll!an immigration. En,couraged by the court, many Czech nobles had married German women ; some of the best positionis of the Church in Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by German clerics; German minnesingers were in high favor t-0 the royal court and at the courts of the richer nobles"(39). Gerald Druce, "authority on Czech science," belongs in Thomson's category. In Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" he had this to say in regard to the matter at hand: "The University of Prague, the oldest in Central Europe, had been founded in 1348 by Charles IV and had been placed upon a secure footing by his successor, Vaclav IV, by the Kutna Hora decrees in 1409. During the Middle Ages the study of the natural sciences flourished in Bo'hemia, as is shown by the number of herbals and contemporary mineralogical and alchemical wol'ks in the Czech langua•ge. Indeed, toward the close of the sixteenth centry Prague was recogn,ized as an important center of learning"(40). The tendency is quite obvious. Significant it is, too, that Druce, like all other pro-Czech propagandists, finds it very convenient to offer no proof for his "historical" statements. Professor Joseph R. Roucek, being a Czech, could allow himself a bit more rope by raising the Czech banner "Pravda vitezi." Writing about the Slovaks and Czechs and their languages, he adds to the confusion ( emphasis here as elsewhere being mine. - P.A.H): "CZECH refers to the principal people or language found in Bohemia and Moravia. SL-OVAK is the name given to the eas• ternmost division of the Czech-speaking people. Protestant leaders and philologists have claimed that Slovak is merely Old �SLOVAKIA 47 Czech and have urged the use of Czech as the sole written Ian• guage"{ 41 ). "The difficulty of intercourse with the Czechs has produced a divergence in what was originally a common language. The Slovak and Czech :forms of the language dilffer in certain minor points to the present day, like two dialects of the same tongue spoken locally"(412). 'IH is eertain, at any rate, that toward the end of the Premyslid era (1'305) the Czech language was already being adQ1Pted by scholars, that it moved from the villages, towns, and castles into books, and that it even began to replace both Latin and German"(43) "The German language (in the time of Hus - the latter part of the 14th century and first quarter of lsth) was predominant both in pwblic offices and in the churches and schools throughout the country"(44). But - as a result oif the Hussrte movement - "the Czech language and literature began to predominate"(45). Nevertheless "The Slovaks remained a separate and distinct people, even though cut off from intercourse with other Slav peoples. They remained mainly Catholic and developed their language as a dialect of the Czech language"(46). Joseph Lettrich, author of a "History of Modern Slovakia," belongs in a category by himself. As a Slovak he is opposed to Slovak freedom and independence. The Slovaks, according to Lettrich, could not exist without the Czechs. Having collaborated with Benes and the Communists, Lettrich is now on vacation from politics in the United States, still serving the interests of the Czechs as a prominent member of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" - the organization of former members of the Communistdominated National Front Government of Czecho-Slovakia (1945-1948). Blinded by his prejudices and ignorant of history, Lettrich had this to say about his own people and their language "When a university was founded in Pra•g ue by King Charle,s N in 11314!8, numerous Slovaks werut to study there, and several became prdfessors at that un,iversity. In this manner the cultural relations between Slovak'S and Czechs, which had been forcibly interrupted, were re-established. They were to play a vital role in the spiritual development of the tJwo peoples. The most powerful influence that united them was the written Czechoslovak language which continued to be common to both. In, the first half of the fi,fteenth century the armies o'f the Czech Hussite warriors penetrated into Slovakia .... The Hussite forces ... introduced a new spirit of independence from Rome. Above all, they once again strengthened the ties of a common language and culture between Czechs and Slovaks"(47). �48 SLOVAKIA Lettrich, like other Slovak renegades and pro-Czech scribes, tried to remake history in the image of "Masaryk's interpretation" of Czech history. The ancient Czechs had the motto: "The truth of God prevails" (pravda Bozi vitezi). Masaryk, following the example of the radical Hussites, threw out God and made the motto read "Truth prevai'ls." Waving Masaryk's banner high, his followers continue in his "interpretation" of the national spirit and the history of the Czechs, misrepresenting and distorting historical facts. Having abandoned Divinely imposed mandates of the moral law, they now seek refuge and justification in the counterfeit doctrine of unbridled liberalism. Whatever might be said to the contrary, the truth is that "Such phrases as 'Czechoslovak language' might be used for the benefit of the outside world and in constitutional and other state documents, but the fact remains that to the vast majority of both peoples (Czechs and Slovaks), the idea remained a pure fiction, and the languages, like the peoples, were, in solid fact, two and not one" (4'8). REFERENCES 1. Jaroslav Vlcek: DEJmY SLOVElNISKJEJ LITElRATURY, 192'3, 1pp. 5,6. 2. Vlcek - p. 2. 3. Vlcek - p. 6. 4. Vlcek - p. 25. 5. SLOVENSKY DENNiK, 1922, No. 17. 6. Vlcek - pp. 4-5 7. Jozef Skultety: O &LOV AKOOH, p. 59. 8. !Kulhanek: KRONIKA CESKOSILOVElNSiKA, pp. 001~62. 9. M. Misik: HUSITI NA SLOVL0NS~U, p. 37. 10. Vlcek - p . 8. t:111. Vlcek - p. 8. 1'2. V. Flajsha11s: NAS JAZYK MA'DERSKY, p. 283. '113. Vlcek - p. 1.2. 14. Vlcek - p,24 . .115. Vlcek - p. 23. 1'6. Jozef Skultety: NElHAN'DE L'UD MOJ! p. 82. 17. Henry Ma1.1czali: MAGYAIROR!SZAG TORTENIETE, Vol. l, p. 367. 18. Vlcek - pp. 5-6. 19. Skultety: 0 SLOVAKO OH, p. '170. 20. Karol Tri\.ovski: K RECOVIEJ OTAZKE SLOVArfroV, ;1.937, p. 23. 21. Flajshans, - i;>. ·1163. 22. IFlajshans - PJl,69. 23. IFlajshans - p. 170. '24. IFla,jshans - p. 209. '25. Flajshans - p. 220. '26. S. Harrison Thomson: CZEOHOSL0 VAKIA IN EUIRO!PEIA!N HliSTORY, 1M4; p. 116. 1 �SLOVAKIA 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 4Jl. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. iFlajshans - p. 259. ,F la,j shans - p. 260. [Flajshans - p. 217. Flajshans - p. 265. Flajshans - p. 259. Tri\.ovski - p. 47. Thomson p. 199. Thomson - p. 200. Thomson - p. 206. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 208. CZEJOHOSLOV.Ax;1iA, edited by Robert J. Kerner, 1'949; 02lEJOHOSLOVAK1iA, Kerner - p. 316. Joseph R. Roucek: CEJN'l1RAlrEAlSTEJRN EUROIPE, 1946; Roucek - p. 63. IRoucek - p. 64. IRoucek - p. 66. iRoucek - p. 69. Roucek - p. 81. Jozef Lettrich: HISTORY OF MOIDERN SLOVA!KIA, pp. 21,22. C. A. Macartney: HUNGARY ANiD HIE)R SUOOESSORS, 49 p . 13. p. 61. 11955; 11937 ; p. 1·26. • • • WHO SAID IT? ''However close the original bonds between the Slovaks and the Czechs) imay have been, the ten, centuries dw:ing which the Slovaks formed a part of the kingdom of Hun:gary, w:hile the Czechs were subjected to German and Austrian influences, naturally brought about a marked dififerentation between the two peoples. Even the physical stocks cannot be so closely related today as they were a thousand years ago, for the Czeohs aTe todlay inextricalbly mingled with German elements, while the Slovak mountaineers have retained their racial purity to a larger degree .... There is, h01Wever, a noti.t:ealb le doifference both in physical appearance and in character between, the dour, efificient, but somewhiat ungainly Czech, and the airy, talkative, hwppy-go-lucky Slovak." - C. A. Macartney: HUNGAIRY AND HER SUOCEJSSORIS, London, L937) . • • • ' Iif a single dynasty had united both peoples ~Czechs and Slovaks) in a permanent, or at least an enduring union, a Czechoslovak nationality would assuredly have been formed and with a Czecho•slovak language - any minor dialectal diff.erences which existed would have been smoothed out. This did not happen; and while the Slavs of Bohemia developed the ,Czech nationality and language, to which the intermed,i ate dialects of Moravila gravitated, the Slovaks under Hungarian rule, not only developed along different lines from the Czechs, but were not even able to form a single literary language with them." - CC. A. Macartney: HUNGA!RY ANlD HiElR SUCOESSORS, London, 1937). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. SLOVAKIA 37 Over the years several "authorities" and "eminent" scholars and journalists have repeated the distortions, false claims, and deliberate untruths of the propagandists, perhaps harboring the thought that time will eventually transform them into truths. Citing the works of such "experts" another genera:tion of scholars and journalists and researchers will arise, quoting these highly questionable "eminent" historians. Thus are errors, distortions, halftruths, and outright falsehoods propagated, while their authors blatantly proclaim that "truth prevails" (pravda vitezi). According to Jaroslav Vlcek, accepted authority on Slovak and Czech literature, the Czech language was the medium of Slova:k literature for over 300 years. The claim is made in his "Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej" (History of Slovak literature) which was published by the Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) of Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1923. Vlcek came from a Czech family that had settled in Slova:kia. He was a follower of T. G. Masaryk and his socatlled Hlasists, the men associated with the periodical "Hlas" (Voice) which promoted the Czech fiction of a united ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation. This claim, which cannot stand up under historical criticism because it has no basis in historical fact, is a favorite of Prague regimes and Czech propagandists. Vlcek himself refutes the claim in his work, but this fact has strangely escaped the notice of practically all English writers of Czecho-Slovak or Czech-Slovak history. In Vlcek's "Dejiny" we read: ''The Hussites brought to u s not onty the din of savage battle, but also a new faith, a new communal language. . . . The Czech language made itsellf at home amo:rJJg the Slorvaks as their literary language ... The exclusive reign of the Czech language lasts for three hundred years from the first Hussite colonization" Cl). "From the fifteenth to the eighteenth cent ury, Hussitism and Pl'otestantism connect Slovak literary creations formaHy with Czech literature. It is not until the end of the eighteerrth century that Bernola!k, and in the middle of the nineteenth cent ury Stur, Hiodza, and Hurlban lay the origins and foundat ions of an independent Slovak literature" (2). "Material, which would clari£y the position of the Czech langua,ge in our midst in the fifteent h century, is thus far for 38 SLOVAKIA the most part laying in the dust of arohives. But even fr.om that bit that has been brought to light, it is safe to say that the Czech language from the second half of the fifteenth cenury is the Ian• guage of the autonomous Slovak authorities and later even the language of the counties and castles" (3). The "Dejiny" even proclaim Czech as the national language in Slovakia : "From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century the national language in Slovakia flows in a threefold current: 1. Printed works, for the most part religious books, and here again for the most part Evangelical (Lutheran), hold to the language of the Kralice Bible; 2. Documents, records, municipal and private books, therefore the written word, more or less including native (Slovak) words and forms in place of the literary Czech forms; 3. The common uneducated people ait home, in the field and in their family circles, converse by means of the inherited, live language of their forefathers - in Slovak" ( 4). Now then, the first current of the "national language in Slovakia" - according to Vlcek's "Dejiny" - is the language of the Kra1ice Bible, i.e., pure Czech and nothing else; the second current is Czech again, interspersed with Slovak words and phrases; and only the third current of this national language is made up of the "live" language of the common people. Informed persons, Slovaks in particular, know that such statements and claims tend to serve especially the political interests of those who claim there is no Slovak nation and, consequently, no Slovak language. We know that they served the interests of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where they claimed that the Slovak nation was the invention of the Magyars and the Slovaks and the Czechs were the same. Vlcek, an authority on Slovak and Czech literature, was also a follower of Masaryk and his '" Hlasists." After the estaiblishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Vlcek was named director of the Matica Slovenska. It was under his directorship that an attempt was made to remake the Slovak language into Czech. When he died, the Czech Anton Stefanek, Minister of Education, wrote these significant words about Vlcek: SLOVAKIA 39 "Very few people knO!W, particularly fNlllll the young gener.ation, that along,side Ma-sacytk it wa,s he (Week) who was the spirit of the 'Hla,s' (the or,g,a n of the Slovak Pan-Czechists, 1008·1004. - ed. note) and molded, so to 51Peak, the young 'Hlasists' .... J . Vlcek is not an ordinary historiain, who mechanically collects scientific matertial to compile new 'boak,s. Into e·v ery one of his works he inserts a certain tendency to seriv,e his nation (the Czech nation - ed.). Along,side his strict s!Cien•tific dbjectiv1ty and his serious respect for Slovaik sentiments he al,ways knew h-OIW to include in his boo~ and h1s articles the eDfort to unite a'Ild not to further divide the Slovaks and Czechs" (5). Let us now research the period of 300 years during which the Czech language reigned exclusively in Slovakia. History teMs us that the Hussites came to Slovakia the first time in 1421; up to 1440 their visits were predatory excursions. They did not come to Slovakia to settle down. The power of the Hussites was broken with their defeat near Lipjariy in 1434. They remained in Slovakia a longer time when Jiskra came to power. On a mandate from Queen Elizarbeth, in the defense of Ladislaus the Posthumous, Jiskra ruled the greater pa:rt of Slovakia from the end of 1439 to the death of Ladislaus in 1457. Mathias, newly elected King of Hungary, began to wage war against Jiskra in 1458, defeating him in 1461. Jiskra was in power in Slovakia from 1440. Let us, then, begin our research of Vlcek's "three hundred years." Vlcek tells us in his "Dejiny" that "with the death of Matthew Cak of Trencin, called Dominus Vagi et Tatrae, at the begi,n ning of the fourteerrtJh century, falls even this monument of Slavalk independence. The g11ant priruc1pa-lity of Nitra (Matyas foldje") bl-end·s into a close po!Hical union with the kingdom ·of Hungary, and our natiorral life loses itself in the common diplomatic ton1gue, the organ of the Ghureh and state, literature ~md society .... "(6). It is generaHy known that Latin was the official language of the Church and state, literature and society, not only during Matthew Ca.k's time, not only during the 300 years of the imagined "exclusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia," but even many years after those 300, when German and Magyar finally replaced it in the Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms respectively. Joseph Dobrovsky, the "father of modern Czech literature," wrote his main work in Latin in 1822. In Trnava, Slovakia, records were kept in Latin up to 1848 (7). 40 SLOVAKIA According to Vlcek, it was not only in official and church circles that Czech took hold in S4ovakia, but even in popular literature of the fifteenth century: "In popular literature Czech is perhaps forcing its way with the same success, even though there exist no positive examples of this." But what kind of "exclusive reign of the Czech language" can that be when it "perhaps" was forcing its way in popular literature for which there exist "no positive examples"? The activities of the Hussites and the influence of Jiskra in Slovakia may have prompted Vlcek to say what he did. Then, however, we would have to assume that Vlcek was not very well informed on the Hussites. We know, as Vlcek must have known, that Jiskra's army, including only the "remnanits" of Hussites, was made up of for the most part of adventurers of many nationalities (8). Furthe:vmore, the Hussite expeditions into Slovakia could not have any influence on the literary language of the Slovaks because of their very nature. There were long intervals between expeditions and the Hussites held Trnava and Skalica only two years (9). The Hussites came to rob, and rob they did, leaving with their plunder. The Czech author Kulhanek adds that Jiskra's plunderers were a despicable lot which, six wears after Lipany, was composed of "those depredatory bands" which had plundered the Czech lands. Vlcek refutes his own statement about the "exclusive reign of Czech" when he tells us that "the sixteenth century extended the field of the Czech language still more. There came the Lutheran Reformation, the national churches and schools" (10). If the Czech language was the exclusive vehicle of Slovak literature in the fifteenth century, how could it possibly spread even more in the sixteenth? Vlcek would want us to believe that Czech even invaded the "national churches and schools" with Luther's Reformation and yet, on the same page, he tells us that these schools were "Latin-Slovak!" The fact is that they were not even Slovak, because, excepting religion, everything else was taught in Latin. Vlcek himself gives evidence of this (11). The Reformation of the sixteenth century did not help the "national churches and schools" in Bohemia and Slovakia. V. Flajshans, noted Czech author and professor of SLOVAKIA 41 Czech literature at the Prague Charles University, deplored Luther's Reformation for the very fact that everywhere it took hold in Bohemia, the German language did too (12). At the beginning of the sixteenth century not Czech but German came to Slovakia; it took hold almost exclusively on~y in the German towns and only in the second half of the sixteenth century did it begin to spread to Slovak settlements. Vlcek himself names many authors who wrote in Latin in the seventeenth century, saying that Protestantism was "shattering the shackles of Latin" (13). Moreover, the end of the eighteenth century, he tells us, "brings to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition" (14). Since, according to Vlcek, Latin, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, had become the linguistic medium of "the Church and state, literature and society in Hungary," and then that "the end of the eighteeDlth century brought to a close the era of religious intolerance and Latin erudition," we must conclude that his statement in regard to the "e~clusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia for 300 years" is irresponsible if not an outright fabrication. After the disastrous Battle of White Mountain (1620), the Czech language was dying in its own homeland, as stated by Vlcek(15). On the other hand, according to Skultety, Latin was dulling the Slovaks nationally from the sixteenth century for almost 200 years (16). "The Hussites brought us (the Slovaks) a new communal language," which became domesticated or was quickly adopted by the Silovaks as their literary medium, according to Vlcek. But the very fact that the Czech language was a "new" language, it must have been foreign to the .Slovaks and, hence, could not have become domesticated in the land of the Slovaks. H. Marczali tells us, for example, that very few land barons (magnates) could read and write at that time: "Of the Hungarian magnates only the Primate of Hungary, Thomas Bakac, knew how to sign his name to the Bratislava Peace Agreement (Nov. 7, 1491) with Maximilian, the German Emperor; Stephen Bathori, Ladisllaus Guthi, Ladislaus Rozgoni - all members of the higher nobility - could not write" (17). History tells us that Hun- 42 SLOVAKIA gary was in a chaotic, rebellious ferment during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - a condition which could not possibly favor the progress of literature and culture of the nationaJlities of Hungary. The fact is that there was no Slovak literature, and, under the circumstances, could not be during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rebellions and wars usually disrupt literary activity and cultural life. Vlcek could not have reported the fact that at that time only priests and monks did any writing and even then only when they hadl no sword in hand. The fact that he did not leads us to the conclusion that Vlcek was interested in promoting the fable about "the exclusive reign of Czech as the literary medium of the Slovaks for 300 years." Chauvinistic Czechs and pro-Czech historians and journalists still propagate Vlcek's fable to "prove" that the Slovaks and Czechs at one time were ethnically one nation. In his "Dejiny" the author devotes the first 18 lines to record superficially the general history of the fifteenth century, and then a total of 27 lines to the entire literary activity of that period. This in itself ought to be sufficient for us to form an idea of the veracity of Vlcek's statement in regard to the "exdusive reign of the Czech language in Slovakia.'' The Prague University, founded by Charles IV in 1348, is credited by Vlcek for the "refreshening of Slovak spiritual life" (18). It had practically no effect on the spiritual or national life of the Czechs themselves, hence it is highly questionable that the university had any great influence on Slovak national life of the fourteenth century. The nationality concept at that time was entirely foreign, unknown(19). National consciousness is usually intimately connected with the fate of a language, and the fate of the Czech language in the fourteent h and previous centuries was indeed very; sad(20). History tells us that the last Premyslide rulers (1253i 1306) unified the Bohemian kingdom, but these very kings cared the least for the Czech language and for Czech na.1 tional consciousness (21). German dominated at the court of Otokar II (1253-1278); the nobility and towns, following SLOVAKIA 43 Otokar's example, also used the German language. An old saying has it tha,t Otokar warned the Czechs: "one shall not be able to see a single Czech on the Prague bridge." In the sixteenth century this warning made the rounds in this form: "A Czech on the Prague bridge will be as rare as a deer with golden antlers"! Otokar, it is recorded, threatened the Czechs in this manner as he took off to fight Rudolph in 1278 (22). Wenceslaus II (1278-1305), son of Otokar II, of all things, became a German poet. Brought up in Germany, Wenceslaus followed in the footsteps of his father, Otokar II, and his grandfather Wenceslaus I, both of whom had forced Czechs out of several towns in favor of the Germans. He could not write "in the langua,ge of the despised men, the (Czech) language in which no one wrote up to that time" (23). Such was the condition of the Czech language up to of Hus. The Czechs, we know, indulge extravaadvent the gantly in the glory of Charles IV, "the father of our country" and the founder of the Prague University. The fact is that Charles IV was a German educated in France. When he was called to occupy the throne of Bohemia he did not know a single word of Czech (24). The teaching medium of the Prague University was Latin. If the University was founded in the Czech interest, the Czech language undoubtedly would have found its way into science before 1499, i.e., 120 years after Charles !V's death. There would then be no need for Hus to fight for the equality of the Czech language in the fifteenth century. Charles was succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus IV (1378-1419), who favored Latin and German. In 1394 the Union of Nobles had him arrested and forced him to issue documents also in Czech. Hus himself, until 1413, wrote in Latin (25). Under Charles IV, the Germans controlled the University. In the heat of the Hussite battle his son and successor, Wences'laus IV, sanctioned the reorganization of the University (Decree of Kutna Hora, Jan. 18, 1409), to give the Czechs "a ruling voice in their own university" (26). The result was disastrous for the University. Losing their influence, the Germans left the University of Prague, May 16, 1409, to found their own 44 SLOVAKIA university at Leipzig. With the exodus of the Germans the university lost its European significance and the Hussite era practically ruined it, reducing everything in the Czechsettled lands in Bohemia and a great part of Moravia to dust and ashes (27). As a result no examinations were held by the university from 1420 to 1428, a situation that happened frequently until 1526, so that Czech students had to continue their studies elsewhere. Flajshans tells us that as late as 1554 all twelve professors of the Prague University did not have together the salary of one professor of the University of Paris (28). The same author begins the chapter on the overglorified "Hussite Century" (15th) with these words: "All the higher schools are Latin; all offi~ cial records and public documents were written in Latin; and Latin united all scholars of the whole world" (29). Concluding the same chapter, Flajshans says: "The cry of Viktorin cal!ling for diligent work in the field of the Czech language remained for a long time the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (30). Viktorin, who in 1495 was opposed to Czech in the law books of Prague, died in 1520. The historical truth is that Czech Hussitism was above all else a religious movement which had practically nothing in common with the "national spirit" of the Czechs. Hussitism was not supported by the Prague University, but rather persecuted. That is why the adherents of Hus' teachings turned their hatred in the first instance against the univesity which they pillaged more than once, beating and throwing out the professors and bringing ruin upon it. The Czechs, the very people who should have nurtured and elevated the "Czech national and religious spirit," turned against the university ( 31) . They developed a new "national spirit" and strived to force it on their people. If the Prague University had practically no influence on the national life of the Czechs at that time, what influence could it possibly have on Slovak national life? The historical fact is that there is not a trace of Hussite literature in Slovakia from the fifteenth century(32). Like Jaroslav Vlcek, later historians, including S. Harrison Thomson of the University of Colorado, Robert J. Ker- SLOVAKIA ner of the University of California, Joseph R. Roucek, of Hofstra College (1946), had the opportunity of writing objectively in regard to the matter at hand by seeking out available historical facts instead of relying on chauvinistic Czech propaganda. Professor S. Harrison Thomson, perhaps unable to see the forest for the trees, said this about the SloV'aks and Czechs and their respective languages: "The two peoples were originally so closely related as to be indistiruguishlalble, but geo,g,rap'lry and distance could easily have induced a separate political existence. The Magyar conquest made any such natural development illl!possible"(i33). ''The Slovaks therefore had no opporfonity to develop their own culture, written language, political institutions or social concepts in any independent way. Their relationship with the Ozechs, their brothers to the west, had, for all practical purposes, ceased to be a reality for them. This situation lasted nine centuries" (34). ''The great similarity of the vernacular lan.guages furnished an additional bond between the peoples of Bohemia and Slovakia" (35). "Political and military prestige combined with purely linguistic flexibility to make Czech rather than Slovak the lingua franca of a considera1b le region outside Bohemia. Written, Czec·h ,b ecame the language of the educated Slovaks, particularly if they had studied at Prague, and .remained such until the end of the 18th century(36). "It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence of this wide acceptance of Czech as the written langua-ge of the Slovaks during a period when Bohemia was free and Slovakia was ruled by Mag,y,ars. Tihe dialectical peculiarities that appear here and ther-e in Slovak document's did not alter the fundamental fact that Czech was accepted as the basic tongue of the tw;,. peoples(37). "The end result of the sojourn of the Hussite armies was not very considerable. In the first place their stay in Slovakia was relatively short, and in the second place we have incontrovertible evidence that the organization and powe1' of the Catholic Church in Slovakia was not noticeably disturbed at any time in the fifteenth century" (138). In his foreword, Professor Thomson warns the reader that the term "Czechoslovakia" has no political significance in his book; "it is used generally to designate the geographical entity lately known by that name." The professor may be coy and naive, but he is no fool. He knew what he was doing. Whether he likes it or not, the fact is that term, with or without the hyphen, is the name of a political entity. He warns the reader further that the 46 SLOVAKIA term "Bohemia" is also geographical "and in no wise an ethnic term." Nevertheless throughout his book he generally substitutes the term "CZECH kingdom"! What justification can there be for denying, ignoring, suppressing, or falsifying established historical facts? By the way, Thomson's "Czechoslovakia in European History" was awarded the "Czechoslovak State Prize" in December 1944, at a time when that state did not factually exist, the provisional (illegal) government of Dr. Edward Benes thus showing its appreciation to the professor. Indeed, the same professor who said in another "historical gem" edited by R. J. Kerner of the University of California: "But to Premysl Otokar I (]19741230) must be assigned the responsibility for inviting the Gerlll!an immigration. En,couraged by the court, many Czech nobles had married German women ; some of the best positionis of the Church in Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by German clerics; German minnesingers were in high favor t-0 the royal court and at the courts of the richer nobles"(39). Gerald Druce, "authority on Czech science," belongs in Thomson's category. In Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" he had this to say in regard to the matter at hand: "The University of Prague, the oldest in Central Europe, had been founded in 1348 by Charles IV and had been placed upon a secure footing by his successor, Vaclav IV, by the Kutna Hora decrees in 1409. During the Middle Ages the study of the natural sciences flourished in Bo'hemia, as is shown by the number of herbals and contemporary mineralogical and alchemical wol'ks in the Czech langua•ge. Indeed, toward the close of the sixteenth centry Prague was recogn,ized as an important center of learning"(40). The tendency is quite obvious. Significant it is, too, that Druce, like all other pro-Czech propagandists, finds it very convenient to offer no proof for his "historical" statements. Professor Joseph R. Roucek, being a Czech, could allow himself a bit more rope by raising the Czech banner "Pravda vitezi." Writing about the Slovaks and Czechs and their languages, he adds to the confusion ( emphasis here as elsewhere being mine. - P.A.H): "CZECH refers to the principal people or language found in Bohemia and Moravia. SL-OVAK is the name given to the eas• ternmost division of the Czech-speaking people. Protestant leaders and philologists have claimed that Slovak is merely Old SLOVAKIA 47 Czech and have urged the use of Czech as the sole written Ian• guage"{ 41 ). "The difficulty of intercourse with the Czechs has produced a divergence in what was originally a common language. The Slovak and Czech :forms of the language dilffer in certain minor points to the present day, like two dialects of the same tongue spoken locally"(412). 'IH is eertain, at any rate, that toward the end of the Premyslid era (1'305) the Czech language was already being adQ1Pted by scholars, that it moved from the villages, towns, and castles into books, and that it even began to replace both Latin and German"(43) "The German language (in the time of Hus - the latter part of the 14th century and first quarter of lsth) was predominant both in pwblic offices and in the churches and schools throughout the country"(44). But - as a result oif the Hussrte movement - "the Czech language and literature began to predominate"(45). Nevertheless "The Slovaks remained a separate and distinct people, even though cut off from intercourse with other Slav peoples. They remained mainly Catholic and developed their language as a dialect of the Czech language"(46). Joseph Lettrich, author of a "History of Modern Slovakia," belongs in a category by himself. As a Slovak he is opposed to Slovak freedom and independence. The Slovaks, according to Lettrich, could not exist without the Czechs. Having collaborated with Benes and the Communists, Lettrich is now on vacation from politics in the United States, still serving the interests of the Czechs as a prominent member of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" - the organization of former members of the Communistdominated National Front Government of Czecho-Slovakia (1945-1948). Blinded by his prejudices and ignorant of history, Lettrich had this to say about his own people and their language "When a university was founded in Pra•g ue by King Charle,s N in 11314!8, numerous Slovaks werut to study there, and several became prdfessors at that un,iversity. In this manner the cultural relations between Slovak'S and Czechs, which had been forcibly interrupted, were re-established. They were to play a vital role in the spiritual development of the tJwo peoples. The most powerful influence that united them was the written Czechoslovak language which continued to be common to both. In, the first half of the fi,fteenth century the armies o'f the Czech Hussite warriors penetrated into Slovakia .... The Hussite forces ... introduced a new spirit of independence from Rome. Above all, they once again strengthened the ties of a common language and culture between Czechs and Slovaks"(47). 48 SLOVAKIA Lettrich, like other Slovak renegades and pro-Czech scribes, tried to remake history in the image of "Masaryk's interpretation" of Czech history. The ancient Czechs had the motto: "The truth of God prevails" (pravda Bozi vitezi). Masaryk, following the example of the radical Hussites, threw out God and made the motto read "Truth prevai'ls." Waving Masaryk's banner high, his followers continue in his "interpretation" of the national spirit and the history of the Czechs, misrepresenting and distorting historical facts. Having abandoned Divinely imposed mandates of the moral law, they now seek refuge and justification in the counterfeit doctrine of unbridled liberalism. Whatever might be said to the contrary, the truth is that "Such phrases as 'Czechoslovak language' might be used for the benefit of the outside world and in constitutional and other state documents, but the fact remains that to the vast majority of both peoples (Czechs and Slovaks), the idea remained a pure fiction, and the languages, like the peoples, were, in solid fact, two and not one" (4'8). REFERENCES 1. Jaroslav Vlcek: DEJmY SLOVElNISKJEJ LITElRATURY, 192'3, 1pp. 5,6. 2. Vlcek - p. 2. 3. Vlcek - p. 6. 4. Vlcek - p. 25. 5. SLOVENSKY DENNiK, 1922, No. 17. 6. Vlcek - pp. 4-5 7. Jozef Skultety: O &LOV AKOOH, p. 59. 8. !Kulhanek: KRONIKA CESKOSILOVElNSiKA, pp. 001~62. 9. M. Misik: HUSITI NA SLOVL0NS~U, p. 37. 10. Vlcek - p . 8. t:111. Vlcek - p. 8. 1'2. V. Flajsha11s: NAS JAZYK MA'DERSKY, p. 283. '113. Vlcek - p. 1.2. 14. Vlcek - p,24 . .115. Vlcek - p. 23. 1'6. Jozef Skultety: NElHAN'DE L'UD MOJ! p. 82. 17. Henry Ma1.1czali: MAGYAIROR!SZAG TORTENIETE, Vol. l, p. 367. 18. Vlcek - pp. 5-6. 19. Skultety: 0 SLOVAKO OH, p. '170. 20. Karol Tri\.ovski: K RECOVIEJ OTAZKE SLOVArfroV, ;1.937, p. 23. 21. Flajshans, - i;>. ·1163. 22. IFlajshans - PJl,69. 23. IFlajshans - p. 170. '24. IFla,jshans - p. 209. '25. Flajshans - p. 220. '26. S. Harrison Thomson: CZEOHOSL0 VAKIA IN EUIRO!PEIA!N HliSTORY, 1M4; p. 116. 1 SLOVAKIA 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 4Jl. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. iFlajshans - p. 259. ,F la,j shans - p. 260. [Flajshans - p. 217. Flajshans - p. 265. Flajshans - p. 259. Tri\.ovski - p. 47. Thomson p. 199. Thomson - p. 200. Thomson - p. 206. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 207. Thomson - p. 208. CZEJOHOSLOV.Ax;1iA, edited by Robert J. Kerner, 1'949; 02lEJOHOSLOVAK1iA, Kerner - p. 316. Joseph R. Roucek: CEJN'l1RAlrEAlSTEJRN EUROIPE, 1946; Roucek - p. 63. IRoucek - p. 64. IRoucek - p. 66. iRoucek - p. 69. Roucek - p. 81. Jozef Lettrich: HISTORY OF MOIDERN SLOVA!KIA, pp. 21,22. C. A. Macartney: HUNGARY ANiD HIE)R SUOOESSORS, 49 p . 13. p. 61. 11955; 11937 ; p. 1·26. • • • WHO SAID IT? ''However close the original bonds between the Slovaks and the Czechs) imay have been, the ten, centuries dw:ing which the Slovaks formed a part of the kingdom of Hun:gary, w:hile the Czechs were subjected to German and Austrian influences, naturally brought about a marked dififerentation between the two peoples. Even the physical stocks cannot be so closely related today as they were a thousand years ago, for the Czeohs aTe todlay inextricalbly mingled with German elements, while the Slovak mountaineers have retained their racial purity to a larger degree .... There is, h01Wever, a noti.t:ealb le doifference both in physical appearance and in character between, the dour, efificient, but somewhiat ungainly Czech, and the airy, talkative, hwppy-go-lucky Slovak." - C. A. Macartney: HUNGAIRY AND HER SUOCEJSSORIS, London, L937) . • • • ' Iif a single dynasty had united both peoples ~Czechs and Slovaks) in a permanent, or at least an enduring union, a Czechoslovak nationality would assuredly have been formed and with a Czecho•slovak language - any minor dialectal diff.erences which existed would have been smoothed out. This did not happen; and while the Slavs of Bohemia developed the ,Czech nationality and language, to which the intermed,i ate dialects of Moravila gravitated, the Slovaks under Hungarian rule, not only developed along different lines from the Czechs, but were not even able to form a single literary language with them." - CC. A. Macartney: HUNGA!RY ANlD HiElR SUCOESSORS, London, 1937).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Was Czech the Vehicle of Slovak Literature? Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 36-49 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6e0e60bbf89ac23192966834393b8fe7.pdf 90f2698a568522dbb06c8615a60257e0 PDF Text Text 50 SLOVAKIA BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1939-1945 J.M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Diiploma,,tic recognition of the Slovak Republic by European Great Powers offers a student of modern political history an interesting field of research. In the official and semi-official memoranda and documents as well as in numerous works, published by political writers in America, we read that the Slovak Republic was recognized and established diplomatic or consular relations merely with "Germany and its satellites.; ' The fact that not only an European states, including the Vatican, Switzerland, Sweden, but also the Soviet Union, established regular diplomatic relations, and that Great Britain exchanged consuls with Slovakia, is as a rule overlooked (1). Why this glaring oversight on the part of practically all American writers on Czecho-Slovakia in the years 1939-1945, is a matter of an easy guess. Most of the information on Slovakia was supplied to the West by Czech exiles who under the leadership of Benes, labored for restoration of Czecho~Slovakia, and American historians and political writers did not question the reliability of their sources of information. A study of the international recognition of the Slovak Republic by European and non-European nations is, therefore, an interesting matter. It shows how easily world opinion can be fooled and how unreliable our "political science" can be even while dealing with current or contemporary events. Among the Great Powers, which never were mentioned in connection with Slovakia by American historians and writers on international events, is, in the first place, Great Britain. Readers of newspapers, periodicals, and books during the war, and later readers of modern history, were induced to believe that Great Britain firmly stood on the side of the Czech politicians who desired to rule Slovakia, and that the British Government never recognized the fact that the autonomous Slovak Diet within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia proclaimed Slovakia an independent State on March 14, 1939. �SLOVAKIA 51 The truth about Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia is, of course, quite different. The British Government instructed its Consul, Peter Pares, to notify the Slovak Government that "His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom proposed to appoint him as Consul for Slovakia" on May 4, 1939, i.e., not later than six weeks after Slovakia's declaration of independence took place (2). The British Parliament accepted the proclamation of Slovakia's independence as a fait accompli against which Great Britain had no intention to protest, even sooner, on March 15, 1939, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that the British Government did not feel bound by the Agreement guaranteeing Czecho-Slovakia her frontiers "because, by the proclamation of the independence of Slovakia by the Slovak Diet, Czecho-Slovakia disintegrated from the inside." Lord Halifax expressed the attitude of the Foreign Office to the events, which took place in Slovakia, in diplomatic terms but did not leave any doubt that he agreed with his Prime Minister. On March 15, 1939, Lord Halifax instructed the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Neville Henderson, to inform the German Government that "His Majesty's Government has no desire to interfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Govemments may be more directly concerned than His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom ... " (3). The German Ambassador to Great Britain, Dirksen, interpreted the above statements and reported to Berlin on March 14, 1939, that "aittitude of the British Government toward conflict between Czechia and Slovakia was clarified by Halifax's speech, statements by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself" and that "British Government regarded constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechia as an internal concern of the Czecho~lovak State in which Great Britain had no part." According to Dirksen ",the more the outward appearance of the right to selfdetermination of the people concerned was preserved, the greater would be the understanding among the public (in �52 SLOVAKIA Great Britain) for a new and stable settlement, especially as on all sides the desire existed to keep out of a remote affair which did not affeot British interests ... " ( 4). As a matter of fact, relations between Great Britain and the Slovak Republic developed so favorably that not later than July 4, 1939, the Slovak Government appointed, with the the consent of the British Government, the first Consul of Slovakia in Great Britain, Milan P. Harminc. The British Consul in Slovakia, Peter Pares, on July 6, 1939, handed a letter to Consul Harminc in which he asked the British authorities in Dover to grant the Slovak Consul "the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on their first arrival in the United Kingdom ... " (5). The Slovak Consul, who actually was in charge of the first Slovak Consulate General in the United Kingdom, notified the Foreign Office of his arrival and asked to be received on July 18, 1939. The Foreign Office in return advised him by letter of August 17, 1939, that there was "no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to his entering forthwith upon his functions as Consul of Slovakia in London" (6). If we take into consideration the international situation in August 1939 and all possible demarches and intrigues of the former Czecho-Slovak politicians and diplomats, and especially of ex-president Dr. Edward Benes, who after March 14, 1939, addressed al'l governments and asked them not to recognize the Slovak Republic, the above attitude of Great Britain certainly allows to arrive at a conclusion that the British Government was certainly not on the side of the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for self~government and independence. International Law knows many forms of international recognition of new States, from de jure to de facto recognition, and to an exchange of diplomatic or consular representatives. Great Britain granted its recognition to the Slovak Republic by exchanging consuls within six weeks after proclamation of Slovakia's independence by the Slovak Diet. There hardly can be any doubt that an early normalization of diplomatic relations would have followed, if the Second World War �SLOVAKIA 53 had not started only six months after Slovakia decided to apply its right to self-determination. Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia after the War broke out in Septem:ber 1939, offers according to some documents, even more conclusive proof of the British Government's inclination to maintain relations with the S'lovak Republic and not to commit itself prematurely to some other solution of the Slovak problem. Adversaries of Slovakia's independence were quite successful in spreading a general belief, when the Second World started, Great Britain ceased to recognize the existence of the Slovak Republic and that the Slovak Government simply took cognizance of that fact. Diplomatic documents, even those published from German archives, give some proof to the contrary. The first Slovak Consul, M. R. Harminc, received a telegram, on September 4, 1939, inviting him to Bratislava for consultation, but he understood that it was a move which the Slovak foreign minister had to make and, therefore, Harmine did not follow the instructions and remained in London, since he saw that the Government of Great Britain did not change its attitude towards Slovakia at the beginning or during the war against Poland. As a matter of fact, Great Britain did not change its stand towards Slovakia even after Poland was divided among her attackers - Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. The Foreign Office formally notified the Slovak Consul on October 12, 1939, that he "will continue to be recognized as the Slovak Consul in London" (7). For the middle of October 1939, in view of the general situation in Europe, this atitude of the British Government certainly indicates that Great Britain still recognized the Slovak Republic and did not intend to break relations with it. Why this attitude of Great Britain was not efficiently used either by the Slovak Consul or the Slovak Government, would call for a lengthy explanation. Documents on German Foreign Policy offer some proof that there were some attempts, on the side of Slovak diplomats, to maintain neutrality and to present Slovakia as a neutral State with regard to Great Britain. This is evident especially from the �54 SLOVAKIA document No. 205, published by the American and British Governments in "Series D" of the Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1845, in which we read that the Slovak Minister to Italy, J. M. Zvrskovec, on March 28, 1940, submitted a note to the Italian Foreign Ministry in which he stated that Slovakia was a neutral country. He requested to convey this to His Majesty's Government "in order that England may recognize Slovakia's neutrality with all its consequences ... " (8). Any attempt of the Slovak Government to keep Slovakia neutral was, of course, more an expression of feelings and desires of the Slovak people and its politicians than a real possibility. Soon after Slovakia proclaimed its independence, the territory of eastern Slovakia was attacked by Hungary and there were indications that also some Polish circles were inclined to make a deal with Germany and Hungary at the expense of Slovakia. "Therefore, in order to discourage Hungary," says a Special Report of the U. S. House of Representatives, "in her armed attack launched against eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded with Germany a Treaty of Protection (Schllltzvertrag) on March 23, 1939." By this theaty Slovakia tried to protect her independence an-d the integrity of her territory since, according to Article I of the Treaty, the Reich "undertook to protect the political independence of the Slovak State and the integrity of its territory," and the Slovak Government agreed in turn "to conduct its foreign policy in close understanding with the German Government" (9). This obligation prevented Slovakia from being formally neutral, and the Slovak diplomat who sent the a:bove mentioned note on Slovakia's neutrality had to pay for his step. So did also his Minister, Ferdinand :Durcansky. Great Britain, however, remained cautious in dealing with the Slovak problem even later. The British Government remained for some time reluctant to recognize the Czech group of exiled politicians led by Benes, who claimed that they were the official representatives of Czecho-Slovakia even though some of them previously resigned from their positions, like Dr. E. Benes, for instance (on October 5, 1938), or never took part in any Prague governments. The �SLOVAKIA 55 British Government "showed great caution in its attitude towards the Czecho-Slovak question," says C. A. Macartney, the British expert on Central Europe in the Foreign Office during the war. "It did not even recognize the Czecho-Slovak Committee until January 6, 1940." On February 24, Mr. Chamberlain spoke of restoring Czech independence, but on March 7, 1940, the London correspondent of the Pester Lloyd was authorized to telegraph the .following message: "British war aims in fact include the restoration of the independen<:e of Czechs and Slovaks. The British Government has, however, in no way committed itself with regard to the constitutional form the extent and the frontiers of the new State. As regards Slovakia, Britain leaves entirely open the question whether the Slovak State shall enjoy its independence in union with a Czech state, or in another form. This question is to be decided by the Slovaks themselves. Beyond the declaration in principle of this war aim, the British Government has entered into no obligations which might give grounds to complaints ... " (10). The Czecho-Slovak Committee, according to Macartney, was "a wartime organization carrying out certain pragmatically necessary duties, and the recognition of it, in that capacity, carried no implication about a future Czecho-Slovak State" (11). Such a formulation of Great Britain's war aims allows undoubtedly to assume that the Bdtish Government considered, even in 1940, further existence of the Slovak State conforms with Great Britain's war aims. The Foreign Office was quite explicit in this regard even in letters addressed to Dr. Benes. When Dr. Benes, in his letter of July 18, 1940, to Lord Halifax, expressed his thanks to His Majesty's Government for the stand which Great Britain took with regard to the events of March 15, 1939, and implied that the British Government "by so doing have solemnly emphasized the political and legal continuity of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," the Foreign Of£ice did not fail to correct Dr. Benes' "li1beral" interpretation. Lord Halifax on behalf of His Majesty's Government wrote emphatically to Dr. Benes that "it cannot be presumed that His Majesty's Government �56 SLOVAKIA necessarily share your conclusion, drawn in your letter: namely, that by their attitude after the events of March 15, 1939, His Majesty's Government have taken any particular attitude concerning the legal continuity of the CzechoSlovak Republic. The acts of His Majesty's Government had the significance that they protested against the changes brought about in Czecho-Slovakia by German military action, and that they stressed that in their opinion these changes had no legal basis ... " (12). In the same letter signed by Lord Halifax on July 18, 1940, there are also some other interesting points regarding Slovakia. His Majesty's Government were, according to Halifax, in principle ready to recognize the Provisional Czecho-Slovak Government," but it was added that "this Provisional Government is to be a representative government of the Czech and Slovak peoples and that it is intended that also the Czecho-Slovak State Council will be of fully representative character and will include the recognized Czech and Slovak leaders abroad, as far as they have not been included in the Provisional Government" (13). We can say, therefore, that the British Government paid, in view of the circumstances, unexpected attention to the Slovak question by stressing that it was ready to recognize Benes' exiled Provisional Government only on the condition of full Slovak participation, and by making a clear distinction between the Czechs and the Slovaks. From Dr. Benes' acts against Slovaks who did not share his political views and ambitions, we can conclude that he was aware of possible dangers for his plans on account of the above British attitude towards Slovakia and the Slovaks. Benes used all means (denunciation, false accusations, etc) to get rid of not only Slovaks advocating Slovakia's right to self-determination (14), but also of Slovaks like Dr. Milan Hod.fa and Dr. Stephen Osusky. Dr. Benes did his utmost to discredit both in England and in the U. S. A. simply because they did not share his views as to the future of Slovakia. The first Consul of the Slovak Republic, Milan P. Harminc, saved himself from vengeance and trouble only by volunteering into the British Army overseas thus abandoning all political activity. �SLOVAKIA 57 All this allows us to believe, even on the basis of documents which are far from complete, that there was a fair possibility to give Central Europe, and in it to the Slovak question, quite a different organiZiation from that advocated by. Dr. Benes and imposed in the end by the Soviet Union, had the British view prevailed. No doubt it would also have required a much clearer stand and understanding of Slovak politicians in Great Britain (Hodza, Osusky, Pauliny-Toth, etc.) who did not agree with Dr. Benes or denounced his machinations, undemocratic procedures, and utter disregard for Slovakia's aspirations (15), but did little or nothing positively to influence the Western Powers and to obtain a recognition of a Slovak exiled Committee or a Provisional Government. The first Slovak Consul apparently failed to use, for his country's future, all the good will and inclination of the British Government to recognize him, even after Poland was defeated, as Consul of Slovakia in London, which he probably would have been able to do, had the Slovak politicians in London supported him. Favorable British attitude towards Slovakia found its expression again before the end of the war when Dr. Benes travelled, in spite of clear hints of the British Government and Parliament, to Moscow and signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, which treaty later helped the Soviet to penetrate into Central Europe and to establish there Communist rule and statellite governments. The British Government allowed, in 1943, Slovak exiles, headed by Peter Pridavok, to organize the Slovak National Council in London which opposed Dr. Benes' policy and advocated independence for Slovakia (16). Unfortunately, it was too late for a change in the fate of Slovakia. Not only did international events help Dr. Benes to accomplish his plans of subjugation of Slovakia but also some Slovak politicians in London and in Slovakia gave a hand to Dr. Benes and Stalin in order to enslave the Slovak people and to rob them of statehood and independence. A study of the British attitude towards Slovakia's aspirations for self-government is, nevertheless, quite an interesting chapter in Slovakia's history of the period 1938-1945 and deserves further research. �58 SLOVAKIA REFERENCES AND DOCUMENTS (1) F'or information on the international recognition of the Slovak Repwblic see: J . M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Speller and Sons, New Yoii{, 1960; J. A. !Mikus: /La Slavaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, '195.5; J. M. Kirschbaum: Nal boj j o samostatnost', Oleveland, :1958; Gi,]bert Oddo: Slovakia and its People, Speller and Sons, New Ywk, 1960. ~2) See attached Document No. 'l. (3) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, 119118-1941.5, Series D; Vol. W, Document No. 234, attached ias Document No. 2. {4) Jlbidem, Document No. 220, attached as Document No. 3. (5) See attaohed Document No. 4. (~ See attached Document No. 5. {7) See attached Document No. 6. {8) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, lJ!ll!M.945, Series D; Document No. 205 or J. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Part IV, p. 280.281. (9) !For full text see J . M. KiTschlbaum, QIP. cit., p. 265. { 10) C. A. Ma~rtney: October Fifteenth, A History of Modern Hungary, Edinburgh University Press, 1957, Parit I, p. 376. {ltl) ]bidem, p . 377. r~l.12) !For foll text see Memoirs of Edward Bene!, London, 19.54, p. •108. On March 15, 1939, the Germans occupied only BohemiaM<Yl'cWia and, therefore, the British protest could not refer to SlovaJcia's proclamation cxf •i ndependence. -0:IJ3) Memoirs of Edward Benes, ,p. 1110. ,Cl4) iPeter Pridavok and several other Slovak!s were confined or int erned in concentration camps on the denun:Cilation cxf Dr. Benes and his supporters of beiIJJg Nazi agents, which, of course, was a malicious and false accusat ion which later was d,ismi ssed by British authorities. 015) See Dr. Osusky's pamphlet "Bene! and Slovakia" and also J. M. Kirschlbaum, op. cit., p. ,286. q16) See memoranda of the Slovak National Council in J . M. Ki~schlbaum's op. cit., pp. 289, 296, 298, 304. 309, etc. DOOUIMENT NO. 1 His EX1Cellency Mr. Ferdinand Durcansky M!inister of Foreign Affairs Bratis}ava Your Excellency: On the instruction Orf the Secretacy of St ate for Foreign .Afifairs I have the honour to inform you that His Majesty's Governmen,t in the United Kin gdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slov-aki!a with residence in Bratislava. Pending preparation of my Commission I have the honour to request promsional recognition •by the Slov.a!k Government as ms Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of thi s opporturuity to ex;press to yowr Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. PE'IlER PAIR.ES, M. P., H. M. Con'sul. 1 �SLOVAKIA 59 DOOUIMEN.l' NO. 2 Documents on Ger,man Foreign Policy, 1918-J1945, Series D, Vol. IV No. 2314' 1'94!].i/4{3'5217 " Ambassador Henderson to Foreign Minister Rilbbenitrop Berlin, Marc'h 15, 11939 Pol. 11V 1700 My Dear Reichminii,ster: Lord Ibli1f.ax has instructed me to take the earliest 01PP<>rtunity to convey the following message to the German Government: His Majesty's G01Vernment have no desire to illlteinfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Governments may be more dixe'c tly conlcerned than His Majesty's G01Vernrnelllt in the United Kingdom. They are, however, -a s the German Go,vernment will surely aippreciJate, deeply concerned for t'he success of ahl efforts to restore coillfidence and a relaxat-ion of tension in Europe. This seems to them more particularily des-iraible at a moment when a start is being made with discussfoonis Oif economic swbjects to which His Majesty's Government believe, the Gel'llllan Goverrnment attach not less importance than they do themselves, and the fruitful development of which depends so directly upon a genel'al sta-te of confidence. From tha-t po.init of view t'hey would deplore any action in Central Europe which would cause a setback to the growth of th-is generial coillf,i dence on which all impro:vemerut in the economdc situation depends and to whic_h such imrprovement might i-n its turn contribute. · Yours sincere-ly, NIEV'.l!LI.iE HlEN!DIE.RSON. DOOlJlMENTI' NO. 3 Documents on Foreign Policy 191'8-ll945, Series D, Vol. IV NO. 220 [40/76461: The Ambassador in Great Britain to the Foreign Ministry TELEGRAM London, March 14, 1009 Urgent No. fJ7 of Ma!I"ch 114 Attitude of British Government toward co•Illflict between Czeichia and Slovaki:a was further clarified yesterday by HaJifax's speech, statements 1by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself. British Government regards constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechii.a as an internal concern of the Czechoslovak state in which Great Britain has nio part. The guarantee of the frontier-s O!f the CzechoslOV1aik State envisaged by Great Britain at Munich is reg-a rded as not yet in force, as the uontier it's elf has not yet 'been 1finally fixed, and the prerequisite for the Brutish ,g uarantee is the unde.rtaking of a like guarantee by other signatories to the Munieh Agreemerut. However, even -iif such a guarantee already existed, it could come into force, according to statements in the press, only "in the event of an �60 SLOVAKIA Ulllprovoked atta·ck" ~1). The mo.re the outward appearance of the right to self-determination, of the people concerned is preserved, the greater will be the understanding among the public here for a new and stable s·e ttlement, especially as on aU sides the desire exri sts to keep out of a remote afifair which does not affect Br.itish interests. D]RKSEN. 1 •~1 This attitude is confia-med hy Chamlberlain 1s reply to a question by Attlee on the same day in the House of Common,s (quoted in the GeI"man White Book, Document No. 257): "I am not sure what the Right Honoralble Gentleman thinks that we should do. I might remind him that the proposed ,g uarantee is one against uniprovoked aggression on Czechoslov,akia. No such ,aggression has yet taken place." DOOUMJENT NO. 4 Letter of the British Consulate in Bratislarva to the Chief Customs Officer in Do,v er, Great Britain Bratislava Slovakia July 6, 1939 Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the 'b earer of this letter, Mr. M. Paul Harminc, who is ,arriving by packet-'boat next week, on Wednesday or Thursday, has been appointed Slovak Consul in London to take up his duties there. No facilities exist here for giving him a dipiomatic visa since there is no diplomatic representative at the capital of the Slovak State. But 'I am furnishing Mr. Harminc with this letter ,as proof of his officiaJ position and shall be most grateful if he caru be granted the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on thek fiir,s t arI"ival in the United Kingdom. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, :PARiES, H. M. Consul. The Chief Customs Officer Dover. 1) DOCUMIENrf NO. 5 A letter of the Foreign Office to the Slovak Cornsul, regarding his official status Foreign Oiifice, S.W.I. August 117, :1009 Sir: With reference to your letter of August 9, I am directed by ¥iscount Halifax to inforun you that there is no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to your entering forthwith upon your functions as Consul of Slovakia in London. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, R. DUNBAR. M. P . Harminc, Esq. Consul of Slovakia. �61 SLOVAKIA DOCUMiENT NO. 6 Great Britain reco_gnized the Slovak Oonsul even after the Second World War started No. C 1'5393/ 2875/ 12 Foreign O!fifice, S. W. I. October J2, '1 009 Dear Monsieur Haruninc: With referenice to ou:r conversation on September 28 regarding y,o ur position in this countr y, I am no:w alble to inform you that you will continue to be recognized as the Slorvak Consul in London. Yours sincerely, I. KI!RKPATRICK. • • • WHO SAID IT? Czecho-Slovakia, as created by the Paris Peace Conference is then a land of mino.rities, a country in which, in fact, there is no majority. By one of the oldest and most ironical of necess ities, the statesmen of Pa r is, who undertook to resolve the Hapsburg Monarchy info its ethn ic fractions in accordance with the rights of peoples, found themselves in the end condemned to create a new state in which the racial elements were as diverse and as irreconci lable as either the Austrian or Hungarian states of the pre-war era." - ~Frank H. Simonds: Can Europe Keep the Peace? - New York, London, '19311; p. 99) . • • • " . .. the Czechoslovak Republic was the least natural state created afte.r world War I. Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia fo r med the parts of a long, unnatural, composite area, with varied rel ief, peoples, communicat ions and economic development." - (Ge·o rge W. >Hoffman: A Geography of Eu rope, University oif Texas, [G53; p. 567) . • • • " If one considers the question of the viability of Czechoslovakia from the strict point of view of geography and ethnography, there would indeed seem to be little hope for the futur e of this curiously composite state." (Herbert Adam Gibbons: Europe Since 1008; p. 258). • • • " From the beginning of the Republic the more e xt remist rulers in Prague asserted that the Czech and Slovak languages we re identical ; they argued that, in reality, the Slovak was only a d ialect of the Czech. The Slovaks, however, rejected this theory, and declared that thefr language, wh ile closely resembl ing the Czech, was a separate idiom." - M. W. Fodor: Plot and Counterplot in Cen ral Eu rope, p. 36). � 50 SLOVAKIA BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1939-1945 J.M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Diiploma,,tic recognition of the Slovak Republic by European Great Powers offers a student of modern political history an interesting field of research. In the official and semi-official memoranda and documents as well as in numerous works, published by political writers in America, we read that the Slovak Republic was recognized and established diplomatic or consular relations merely with "Germany and its satellites.; ' The fact that not only an European states, including the Vatican, Switzerland, Sweden, but also the Soviet Union, established regular diplomatic relations, and that Great Britain exchanged consuls with Slovakia, is as a rule overlooked (1). Why this glaring oversight on the part of practically all American writers on Czecho-Slovakia in the years 1939-1945, is a matter of an easy guess. Most of the information on Slovakia was supplied to the West by Czech exiles who under the leadership of Benes, labored for restoration of Czecho~Slovakia, and American historians and political writers did not question the reliability of their sources of information. A study of the international recognition of the Slovak Republic by European and non-European nations is, therefore, an interesting matter. It shows how easily world opinion can be fooled and how unreliable our "political science" can be even while dealing with current or contemporary events. Among the Great Powers, which never were mentioned in connection with Slovakia by American historians and writers on international events, is, in the first place, Great Britain. Readers of newspapers, periodicals, and books during the war, and later readers of modern history, were induced to believe that Great Britain firmly stood on the side of the Czech politicians who desired to rule Slovakia, and that the British Government never recognized the fact that the autonomous Slovak Diet within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia proclaimed Slovakia an independent State on March 14, 1939. �SLOVAKIA 51 The truth about Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia is, of course, quite different. The British Government instructed its Consul, Peter Pares, to notify the Slovak Government that "His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom proposed to appoint him as Consul for Slovakia" on May 4, 1939, i.e., not later than six weeks after Slovakia's declaration of independence took place (2). The British Parliament accepted the proclamation of Slovakia's independence as a fait accompli against which Great Britain had no intention to protest, even sooner, on March 15, 1939, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that the British Government did not feel bound by the Agreement guaranteeing Czecho-Slovakia her frontiers "because, by the proclamation of the independence of Slovakia by the Slovak Diet, Czecho-Slovakia disintegrated from the inside." Lord Halifax expressed the attitude of the Foreign Office to the events, which took place in Slovakia, in diplomatic terms but did not leave any doubt that he agreed with his Prime Minister. On March 15, 1939, Lord Halifax instructed the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Neville Henderson, to inform the German Government that "His Majesty's Government has no desire to interfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Govemments may be more directly concerned than His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom ... " (3). The German Ambassador to Great Britain, Dirksen, interpreted the above statements and reported to Berlin on March 14, 1939, that "aittitude of the British Government toward conflict between Czechia and Slovakia was clarified by Halifax's speech, statements by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself" and that "British Government regarded constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechia as an internal concern of the Czecho~lovak State in which Great Britain had no part." According to Dirksen ",the more the outward appearance of the right to selfdetermination of the people concerned was preserved, the greater would be the understanding among the public (in �52 SLOVAKIA Great Britain) for a new and stable settlement, especially as on all sides the desire existed to keep out of a remote affair which did not affeot British interests ... " ( 4). As a matter of fact, relations between Great Britain and the Slovak Republic developed so favorably that not later than July 4, 1939, the Slovak Government appointed, with the the consent of the British Government, the first Consul of Slovakia in Great Britain, Milan P. Harminc. The British Consul in Slovakia, Peter Pares, on July 6, 1939, handed a letter to Consul Harminc in which he asked the British authorities in Dover to grant the Slovak Consul "the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on their first arrival in the United Kingdom ... " (5). The Slovak Consul, who actually was in charge of the first Slovak Consulate General in the United Kingdom, notified the Foreign Office of his arrival and asked to be received on July 18, 1939. The Foreign Office in return advised him by letter of August 17, 1939, that there was "no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to his entering forthwith upon his functions as Consul of Slovakia in London" (6). If we take into consideration the international situation in August 1939 and all possible demarches and intrigues of the former Czecho-Slovak politicians and diplomats, and especially of ex-president Dr. Edward Benes, who after March 14, 1939, addressed al'l governments and asked them not to recognize the Slovak Republic, the above attitude of Great Britain certainly allows to arrive at a conclusion that the British Government was certainly not on the side of the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for self~government and independence. International Law knows many forms of international recognition of new States, from de jure to de facto recognition, and to an exchange of diplomatic or consular representatives. Great Britain granted its recognition to the Slovak Republic by exchanging consuls within six weeks after proclamation of Slovakia's independence by the Slovak Diet. There hardly can be any doubt that an early normalization of diplomatic relations would have followed, if the Second World War �SLOVAKIA 53 had not started only six months after Slovakia decided to apply its right to self-determination. Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia after the War broke out in Septem:ber 1939, offers according to some documents, even more conclusive proof of the British Government's inclination to maintain relations with the S'lovak Republic and not to commit itself prematurely to some other solution of the Slovak problem. Adversaries of Slovakia's independence were quite successful in spreading a general belief, when the Second World started, Great Britain ceased to recognize the existence of the Slovak Republic and that the Slovak Government simply took cognizance of that fact. Diplomatic documents, even those published from German archives, give some proof to the contrary. The first Slovak Consul, M. R. Harminc, received a telegram, on September 4, 1939, inviting him to Bratislava for consultation, but he understood that it was a move which the Slovak foreign minister had to make and, therefore, Harmine did not follow the instructions and remained in London, since he saw that the Government of Great Britain did not change its attitude towards Slovakia at the beginning or during the war against Poland. As a matter of fact, Great Britain did not change its stand towards Slovakia even after Poland was divided among her attackers - Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. The Foreign Office formally notified the Slovak Consul on October 12, 1939, that he "will continue to be recognized as the Slovak Consul in London" (7). For the middle of October 1939, in view of the general situation in Europe, this atitude of the British Government certainly indicates that Great Britain still recognized the Slovak Republic and did not intend to break relations with it. Why this attitude of Great Britain was not efficiently used either by the Slovak Consul or the Slovak Government, would call for a lengthy explanation. Documents on German Foreign Policy offer some proof that there were some attempts, on the side of Slovak diplomats, to maintain neutrality and to present Slovakia as a neutral State with regard to Great Britain. This is evident especially from the �54 SLOVAKIA document No. 205, published by the American and British Governments in "Series D" of the Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1845, in which we read that the Slovak Minister to Italy, J. M. Zvrskovec, on March 28, 1940, submitted a note to the Italian Foreign Ministry in which he stated that Slovakia was a neutral country. He requested to convey this to His Majesty's Government "in order that England may recognize Slovakia's neutrality with all its consequences ... " (8). Any attempt of the Slovak Government to keep Slovakia neutral was, of course, more an expression of feelings and desires of the Slovak people and its politicians than a real possibility. Soon after Slovakia proclaimed its independence, the territory of eastern Slovakia was attacked by Hungary and there were indications that also some Polish circles were inclined to make a deal with Germany and Hungary at the expense of Slovakia. "Therefore, in order to discourage Hungary," says a Special Report of the U. S. House of Representatives, "in her armed attack launched against eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded with Germany a Treaty of Protection (Schllltzvertrag) on March 23, 1939." By this theaty Slovakia tried to protect her independence an-d the integrity of her territory since, according to Article I of the Treaty, the Reich "undertook to protect the political independence of the Slovak State and the integrity of its territory," and the Slovak Government agreed in turn "to conduct its foreign policy in close understanding with the German Government" (9). This obligation prevented Slovakia from being formally neutral, and the Slovak diplomat who sent the a:bove mentioned note on Slovakia's neutrality had to pay for his step. So did also his Minister, Ferdinand :Durcansky. Great Britain, however, remained cautious in dealing with the Slovak problem even later. The British Government remained for some time reluctant to recognize the Czech group of exiled politicians led by Benes, who claimed that they were the official representatives of Czecho-Slovakia even though some of them previously resigned from their positions, like Dr. E. Benes, for instance (on October 5, 1938), or never took part in any Prague governments. The �SLOVAKIA 55 British Government "showed great caution in its attitude towards the Czecho-Slovak question," says C. A. Macartney, the British expert on Central Europe in the Foreign Office during the war. "It did not even recognize the Czecho-Slovak Committee until January 6, 1940." On February 24, Mr. Chamberlain spoke of restoring Czech independence, but on March 7, 1940, the London correspondent of the Pester Lloyd was authorized to telegraph the .following message: "British war aims in fact include the restoration of the independen<:e of Czechs and Slovaks. The British Government has, however, in no way committed itself with regard to the constitutional form the extent and the frontiers of the new State. As regards Slovakia, Britain leaves entirely open the question whether the Slovak State shall enjoy its independence in union with a Czech state, or in another form. This question is to be decided by the Slovaks themselves. Beyond the declaration in principle of this war aim, the British Government has entered into no obligations which might give grounds to complaints ... " (10). The Czecho-Slovak Committee, according to Macartney, was "a wartime organization carrying out certain pragmatically necessary duties, and the recognition of it, in that capacity, carried no implication about a future Czecho-Slovak State" (11). Such a formulation of Great Britain's war aims allows undoubtedly to assume that the Bdtish Government considered, even in 1940, further existence of the Slovak State conforms with Great Britain's war aims. The Foreign Office was quite explicit in this regard even in letters addressed to Dr. Benes. When Dr. Benes, in his letter of July 18, 1940, to Lord Halifax, expressed his thanks to His Majesty's Government for the stand which Great Britain took with regard to the events of March 15, 1939, and implied that the British Government "by so doing have solemnly emphasized the political and legal continuity of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," the Foreign Of£ice did not fail to correct Dr. Benes' "li1beral" interpretation. Lord Halifax on behalf of His Majesty's Government wrote emphatically to Dr. Benes that "it cannot be presumed that His Majesty's Government �56 SLOVAKIA necessarily share your conclusion, drawn in your letter: namely, that by their attitude after the events of March 15, 1939, His Majesty's Government have taken any particular attitude concerning the legal continuity of the CzechoSlovak Republic. The acts of His Majesty's Government had the significance that they protested against the changes brought about in Czecho-Slovakia by German military action, and that they stressed that in their opinion these changes had no legal basis ... " (12). In the same letter signed by Lord Halifax on July 18, 1940, there are also some other interesting points regarding Slovakia. His Majesty's Government were, according to Halifax, in principle ready to recognize the Provisional Czecho-Slovak Government," but it was added that "this Provisional Government is to be a representative government of the Czech and Slovak peoples and that it is intended that also the Czecho-Slovak State Council will be of fully representative character and will include the recognized Czech and Slovak leaders abroad, as far as they have not been included in the Provisional Government" (13). We can say, therefore, that the British Government paid, in view of the circumstances, unexpected attention to the Slovak question by stressing that it was ready to recognize Benes' exiled Provisional Government only on the condition of full Slovak participation, and by making a clear distinction between the Czechs and the Slovaks. From Dr. Benes' acts against Slovaks who did not share his political views and ambitions, we can conclude that he was aware of possible dangers for his plans on account of the above British attitude towards Slovakia and the Slovaks. Benes used all means (denunciation, false accusations, etc) to get rid of not only Slovaks advocating Slovakia's right to self-determination (14), but also of Slovaks like Dr. Milan Hod.fa and Dr. Stephen Osusky. Dr. Benes did his utmost to discredit both in England and in the U. S. A. simply because they did not share his views as to the future of Slovakia. The first Consul of the Slovak Republic, Milan P. Harminc, saved himself from vengeance and trouble only by volunteering into the British Army overseas thus abandoning all political activity. �SLOVAKIA 57 All this allows us to believe, even on the basis of documents which are far from complete, that there was a fair possibility to give Central Europe, and in it to the Slovak question, quite a different organiZiation from that advocated by. Dr. Benes and imposed in the end by the Soviet Union, had the British view prevailed. No doubt it would also have required a much clearer stand and understanding of Slovak politicians in Great Britain (Hodza, Osusky, Pauliny-Toth, etc.) who did not agree with Dr. Benes or denounced his machinations, undemocratic procedures, and utter disregard for Slovakia's aspirations (15), but did little or nothing positively to influence the Western Powers and to obtain a recognition of a Slovak exiled Committee or a Provisional Government. The first Slovak Consul apparently failed to use, for his country's future, all the good will and inclination of the British Government to recognize him, even after Poland was defeated, as Consul of Slovakia in London, which he probably would have been able to do, had the Slovak politicians in London supported him. Favorable British attitude towards Slovakia found its expression again before the end of the war when Dr. Benes travelled, in spite of clear hints of the British Government and Parliament, to Moscow and signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, which treaty later helped the Soviet to penetrate into Central Europe and to establish there Communist rule and statellite governments. The British Government allowed, in 1943, Slovak exiles, headed by Peter Pridavok, to organize the Slovak National Council in London which opposed Dr. Benes' policy and advocated independence for Slovakia (16). Unfortunately, it was too late for a change in the fate of Slovakia. Not only did international events help Dr. Benes to accomplish his plans of subjugation of Slovakia but also some Slovak politicians in London and in Slovakia gave a hand to Dr. Benes and Stalin in order to enslave the Slovak people and to rob them of statehood and independence. A study of the British attitude towards Slovakia's aspirations for self-government is, nevertheless, quite an interesting chapter in Slovakia's history of the period 1938-1945 and deserves further research. �58 SLOVAKIA REFERENCES AND DOCUMENTS (1) F'or information on the international recognition of the Slovak Repwblic see: J . M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Speller and Sons, New Yoii{, 1960; J. A. !Mikus: /La Slavaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, '195.5; J. M. Kirschbaum: Nal boj j o samostatnost', Oleveland, :1958; Gi,]bert Oddo: Slovakia and its People, Speller and Sons, New Ywk, 1960. ~2) See attached Document No. 'l. (3) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, 119118-1941.5, Series D; Vol. W, Document No. 234, attached ias Document No. 2. {4) Jlbidem, Document No. 220, attached as Document No. 3. (5) See attaohed Document No. 4. (~ See attached Document No. 5. {7) See attached Document No. 6. {8) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, lJ!ll!M.945, Series D; Document No. 205 or J. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Part IV, p. 280.281. (9) !For full text see J . M. KiTschlbaum, QIP. cit., p. 265. { 10) C. A. Ma~rtney: October Fifteenth, A History of Modern Hungary, Edinburgh University Press, 1957, Parit I, p. 376. {ltl) ]bidem, p . 377. r~l.12) !For foll text see Memoirs of Edward Bene!, London, 19.54, p. •108. On March 15, 1939, the Germans occupied only BohemiaM<Yl'cWia and, therefore, the British protest could not refer to SlovaJcia's proclamation cxf •i ndependence. -0:IJ3) Memoirs of Edward Benes, ,p. 1110. ,Cl4) iPeter Pridavok and several other Slovak!s were confined or int erned in concentration camps on the denun:Cilation cxf Dr. Benes and his supporters of beiIJJg Nazi agents, which, of course, was a malicious and false accusat ion which later was d,ismi ssed by British authorities. 015) See Dr. Osusky's pamphlet "Bene! and Slovakia" and also J. M. Kirschlbaum, op. cit., p. ,286. q16) See memoranda of the Slovak National Council in J . M. Ki~schlbaum's op. cit., pp. 289, 296, 298, 304. 309, etc. DOOUIMENT NO. 1 His EX1Cellency Mr. Ferdinand Durcansky M!inister of Foreign Affairs Bratis}ava Your Excellency: On the instruction Orf the Secretacy of St ate for Foreign .Afifairs I have the honour to inform you that His Majesty's Governmen,t in the United Kin gdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slov-aki!a with residence in Bratislava. Pending preparation of my Commission I have the honour to request promsional recognition •by the Slov.a!k Government as ms Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of thi s opporturuity to ex;press to yowr Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. PE'IlER PAIR.ES, M. P., H. M. Con'sul. 1 �SLOVAKIA 59 DOOUIMEN.l' NO. 2 Documents on Ger,man Foreign Policy, 1918-J1945, Series D, Vol. IV No. 2314' 1'94!].i/4{3'5217 " Ambassador Henderson to Foreign Minister Rilbbenitrop Berlin, Marc'h 15, 11939 Pol. 11V 1700 My Dear Reichminii,ster: Lord Ibli1f.ax has instructed me to take the earliest 01PP<>rtunity to convey the following message to the German Government: His Majesty's G01Vernment have no desire to illlteinfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Governments may be more dixe'c tly conlcerned than His Majesty's G01Vernrnelllt in the United Kingdom. They are, however, -a s the German Go,vernment will surely aippreciJate, deeply concerned for t'he success of ahl efforts to restore coillfidence and a relaxat-ion of tension in Europe. This seems to them more particularily des-iraible at a moment when a start is being made with discussfoonis Oif economic swbjects to which His Majesty's Government believe, the Gel'llllan Goverrnment attach not less importance than they do themselves, and the fruitful development of which depends so directly upon a genel'al sta-te of confidence. From tha-t po.init of view t'hey would deplore any action in Central Europe which would cause a setback to the growth of th-is generial coillf,i dence on which all impro:vemerut in the economdc situation depends and to whic_h such imrprovement might i-n its turn contribute. · Yours sincere-ly, NIEV'.l!LI.iE HlEN!DIE.RSON. DOOlJlMENTI' NO. 3 Documents on Foreign Policy 191'8-ll945, Series D, Vol. IV NO. 220 [40/76461: The Ambassador in Great Britain to the Foreign Ministry TELEGRAM London, March 14, 1009 Urgent No. fJ7 of Ma!I"ch 114 Attitude of British Government toward co•Illflict between Czeichia and Slovaki:a was further clarified yesterday by HaJifax's speech, statements 1by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself. British Government regards constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechii.a as an internal concern of the Czechoslovak state in which Great Britain has nio part. The guarantee of the frontier-s O!f the CzechoslOV1aik State envisaged by Great Britain at Munich is reg-a rded as not yet in force, as the uontier it's elf has not yet 'been 1finally fixed, and the prerequisite for the Brutish ,g uarantee is the unde.rtaking of a like guarantee by other signatories to the Munieh Agreemerut. However, even -iif such a guarantee already existed, it could come into force, according to statements in the press, only "in the event of an �60 SLOVAKIA Ulllprovoked atta·ck" ~1). The mo.re the outward appearance of the right to self-determination, of the people concerned is preserved, the greater will be the understanding among the public here for a new and stable s·e ttlement, especially as on aU sides the desire exri sts to keep out of a remote afifair which does not affect Br.itish interests. D]RKSEN. 1 •~1 This attitude is confia-med hy Chamlberlain 1s reply to a question by Attlee on the same day in the House of Common,s (quoted in the GeI"man White Book, Document No. 257): "I am not sure what the Right Honoralble Gentleman thinks that we should do. I might remind him that the proposed ,g uarantee is one against uniprovoked aggression on Czechoslov,akia. No such ,aggression has yet taken place." DOOUMJENT NO. 4 Letter of the British Consulate in Bratislarva to the Chief Customs Officer in Do,v er, Great Britain Bratislava Slovakia July 6, 1939 Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the 'b earer of this letter, Mr. M. Paul Harminc, who is ,arriving by packet-'boat next week, on Wednesday or Thursday, has been appointed Slovak Consul in London to take up his duties there. No facilities exist here for giving him a dipiomatic visa since there is no diplomatic representative at the capital of the Slovak State. But 'I am furnishing Mr. Harminc with this letter ,as proof of his officiaJ position and shall be most grateful if he caru be granted the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on thek fiir,s t arI"ival in the United Kingdom. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, :PARiES, H. M. Consul. The Chief Customs Officer Dover. 1) DOCUMIENrf NO. 5 A letter of the Foreign Office to the Slovak Cornsul, regarding his official status Foreign Oiifice, S.W.I. August 117, :1009 Sir: With reference to your letter of August 9, I am directed by ¥iscount Halifax to inforun you that there is no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to your entering forthwith upon your functions as Consul of Slovakia in London. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, R. DUNBAR. M. P . Harminc, Esq. Consul of Slovakia. �61 SLOVAKIA DOCUMiENT NO. 6 Great Britain reco_gnized the Slovak Oonsul even after the Second World War started No. C 1'5393/ 2875/ 12 Foreign O!fifice, S. W. I. October J2, '1 009 Dear Monsieur Haruninc: With referenice to ou:r conversation on September 28 regarding y,o ur position in this countr y, I am no:w alble to inform you that you will continue to be recognized as the Slorvak Consul in London. Yours sincerely, I. KI!RKPATRICK. • • • WHO SAID IT? Czecho-Slovakia, as created by the Paris Peace Conference is then a land of mino.rities, a country in which, in fact, there is no majority. By one of the oldest and most ironical of necess ities, the statesmen of Pa r is, who undertook to resolve the Hapsburg Monarchy info its ethn ic fractions in accordance with the rights of peoples, found themselves in the end condemned to create a new state in which the racial elements were as diverse and as irreconci lable as either the Austrian or Hungarian states of the pre-war era." - ~Frank H. Simonds: Can Europe Keep the Peace? - New York, London, '19311; p. 99) . • • • " . .. the Czechoslovak Republic was the least natural state created afte.r world War I. Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia fo r med the parts of a long, unnatural, composite area, with varied rel ief, peoples, communicat ions and economic development." - (Ge·o rge W. >Hoffman: A Geography of Eu rope, University oif Texas, [G53; p. 567) . • • • " If one considers the question of the viability of Czechoslovakia from the strict point of view of geography and ethnography, there would indeed seem to be little hope for the futur e of this curiously composite state." (Herbert Adam Gibbons: Europe Since 1008; p. 258). • • • " From the beginning of the Republic the more e xt remist rulers in Prague asserted that the Czech and Slovak languages we re identical ; they argued that, in reality, the Slovak was only a d ialect of the Czech. The Slovaks, however, rejected this theory, and declared that thefr language, wh ile closely resembl ing the Czech, was a separate idiom." - M. W. Fodor: Plot and Counterplot in Cen ral Eu rope, p. 36). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 50 SLOVAKIA BRITISH POLICY AND SLOVAKIA - 1939-1945 J.M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Diiploma,,tic recognition of the Slovak Republic by European Great Powers offers a student of modern political history an interesting field of research. In the official and semi-official memoranda and documents as well as in numerous works, published by political writers in America, we read that the Slovak Republic was recognized and established diplomatic or consular relations merely with "Germany and its satellites.; ' The fact that not only an European states, including the Vatican, Switzerland, Sweden, but also the Soviet Union, established regular diplomatic relations, and that Great Britain exchanged consuls with Slovakia, is as a rule overlooked (1). Why this glaring oversight on the part of practically all American writers on Czecho-Slovakia in the years 1939-1945, is a matter of an easy guess. Most of the information on Slovakia was supplied to the West by Czech exiles who under the leadership of Benes, labored for restoration of Czecho~Slovakia, and American historians and political writers did not question the reliability of their sources of information. A study of the international recognition of the Slovak Republic by European and non-European nations is, therefore, an interesting matter. It shows how easily world opinion can be fooled and how unreliable our "political science" can be even while dealing with current or contemporary events. Among the Great Powers, which never were mentioned in connection with Slovakia by American historians and writers on international events, is, in the first place, Great Britain. Readers of newspapers, periodicals, and books during the war, and later readers of modern history, were induced to believe that Great Britain firmly stood on the side of the Czech politicians who desired to rule Slovakia, and that the British Government never recognized the fact that the autonomous Slovak Diet within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia proclaimed Slovakia an independent State on March 14, 1939. SLOVAKIA 51 The truth about Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia is, of course, quite different. The British Government instructed its Consul, Peter Pares, to notify the Slovak Government that "His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom proposed to appoint him as Consul for Slovakia" on May 4, 1939, i.e., not later than six weeks after Slovakia's declaration of independence took place (2). The British Parliament accepted the proclamation of Slovakia's independence as a fait accompli against which Great Britain had no intention to protest, even sooner, on March 15, 1939, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that the British Government did not feel bound by the Agreement guaranteeing Czecho-Slovakia her frontiers "because, by the proclamation of the independence of Slovakia by the Slovak Diet, Czecho-Slovakia disintegrated from the inside." Lord Halifax expressed the attitude of the Foreign Office to the events, which took place in Slovakia, in diplomatic terms but did not leave any doubt that he agreed with his Prime Minister. On March 15, 1939, Lord Halifax instructed the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Neville Henderson, to inform the German Government that "His Majesty's Government has no desire to interfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Govemments may be more directly concerned than His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom ... " (3). The German Ambassador to Great Britain, Dirksen, interpreted the above statements and reported to Berlin on March 14, 1939, that "aittitude of the British Government toward conflict between Czechia and Slovakia was clarified by Halifax's speech, statements by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself" and that "British Government regarded constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechia as an internal concern of the Czecho~lovak State in which Great Britain had no part." According to Dirksen ",the more the outward appearance of the right to selfdetermination of the people concerned was preserved, the greater would be the understanding among the public (in 52 SLOVAKIA Great Britain) for a new and stable settlement, especially as on all sides the desire existed to keep out of a remote affair which did not affeot British interests ... " ( 4). As a matter of fact, relations between Great Britain and the Slovak Republic developed so favorably that not later than July 4, 1939, the Slovak Government appointed, with the the consent of the British Government, the first Consul of Slovakia in Great Britain, Milan P. Harminc. The British Consul in Slovakia, Peter Pares, on July 6, 1939, handed a letter to Consul Harminc in which he asked the British authorities in Dover to grant the Slovak Consul "the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on their first arrival in the United Kingdom ... " (5). The Slovak Consul, who actually was in charge of the first Slovak Consulate General in the United Kingdom, notified the Foreign Office of his arrival and asked to be received on July 18, 1939. The Foreign Office in return advised him by letter of August 17, 1939, that there was "no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to his entering forthwith upon his functions as Consul of Slovakia in London" (6). If we take into consideration the international situation in August 1939 and all possible demarches and intrigues of the former Czecho-Slovak politicians and diplomats, and especially of ex-president Dr. Edward Benes, who after March 14, 1939, addressed al'l governments and asked them not to recognize the Slovak Republic, the above attitude of Great Britain certainly allows to arrive at a conclusion that the British Government was certainly not on the side of the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for self~government and independence. International Law knows many forms of international recognition of new States, from de jure to de facto recognition, and to an exchange of diplomatic or consular representatives. Great Britain granted its recognition to the Slovak Republic by exchanging consuls within six weeks after proclamation of Slovakia's independence by the Slovak Diet. There hardly can be any doubt that an early normalization of diplomatic relations would have followed, if the Second World War SLOVAKIA 53 had not started only six months after Slovakia decided to apply its right to self-determination. Great Britain's attitude towards Slovakia after the War broke out in Septem:ber 1939, offers according to some documents, even more conclusive proof of the British Government's inclination to maintain relations with the S'lovak Republic and not to commit itself prematurely to some other solution of the Slovak problem. Adversaries of Slovakia's independence were quite successful in spreading a general belief, when the Second World started, Great Britain ceased to recognize the existence of the Slovak Republic and that the Slovak Government simply took cognizance of that fact. Diplomatic documents, even those published from German archives, give some proof to the contrary. The first Slovak Consul, M. R. Harminc, received a telegram, on September 4, 1939, inviting him to Bratislava for consultation, but he understood that it was a move which the Slovak foreign minister had to make and, therefore, Harmine did not follow the instructions and remained in London, since he saw that the Government of Great Britain did not change its attitude towards Slovakia at the beginning or during the war against Poland. As a matter of fact, Great Britain did not change its stand towards Slovakia even after Poland was divided among her attackers - Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. The Foreign Office formally notified the Slovak Consul on October 12, 1939, that he "will continue to be recognized as the Slovak Consul in London" (7). For the middle of October 1939, in view of the general situation in Europe, this atitude of the British Government certainly indicates that Great Britain still recognized the Slovak Republic and did not intend to break relations with it. Why this attitude of Great Britain was not efficiently used either by the Slovak Consul or the Slovak Government, would call for a lengthy explanation. Documents on German Foreign Policy offer some proof that there were some attempts, on the side of Slovak diplomats, to maintain neutrality and to present Slovakia as a neutral State with regard to Great Britain. This is evident especially from the 54 SLOVAKIA document No. 205, published by the American and British Governments in "Series D" of the Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1845, in which we read that the Slovak Minister to Italy, J. M. Zvrskovec, on March 28, 1940, submitted a note to the Italian Foreign Ministry in which he stated that Slovakia was a neutral country. He requested to convey this to His Majesty's Government "in order that England may recognize Slovakia's neutrality with all its consequences ... " (8). Any attempt of the Slovak Government to keep Slovakia neutral was, of course, more an expression of feelings and desires of the Slovak people and its politicians than a real possibility. Soon after Slovakia proclaimed its independence, the territory of eastern Slovakia was attacked by Hungary and there were indications that also some Polish circles were inclined to make a deal with Germany and Hungary at the expense of Slovakia. "Therefore, in order to discourage Hungary," says a Special Report of the U. S. House of Representatives, "in her armed attack launched against eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded with Germany a Treaty of Protection (Schllltzvertrag) on March 23, 1939." By this theaty Slovakia tried to protect her independence an-d the integrity of her territory since, according to Article I of the Treaty, the Reich "undertook to protect the political independence of the Slovak State and the integrity of its territory," and the Slovak Government agreed in turn "to conduct its foreign policy in close understanding with the German Government" (9). This obligation prevented Slovakia from being formally neutral, and the Slovak diplomat who sent the a:bove mentioned note on Slovakia's neutrality had to pay for his step. So did also his Minister, Ferdinand :Durcansky. Great Britain, however, remained cautious in dealing with the Slovak problem even later. The British Government remained for some time reluctant to recognize the Czech group of exiled politicians led by Benes, who claimed that they were the official representatives of Czecho-Slovakia even though some of them previously resigned from their positions, like Dr. E. Benes, for instance (on October 5, 1938), or never took part in any Prague governments. The SLOVAKIA 55 British Government "showed great caution in its attitude towards the Czecho-Slovak question," says C. A. Macartney, the British expert on Central Europe in the Foreign Office during the war. "It did not even recognize the Czecho-Slovak Committee until January 6, 1940." On February 24, Mr. Chamberlain spoke of restoring Czech independence, but on March 7, 1940, the London correspondent of the Pester Lloyd was authorized to telegraph the .following message: "British war aims in fact include the restoration of the independen<:e of Czechs and Slovaks. The British Government has, however, in no way committed itself with regard to the constitutional form the extent and the frontiers of the new State. As regards Slovakia, Britain leaves entirely open the question whether the Slovak State shall enjoy its independence in union with a Czech state, or in another form. This question is to be decided by the Slovaks themselves. Beyond the declaration in principle of this war aim, the British Government has entered into no obligations which might give grounds to complaints ... " (10). The Czecho-Slovak Committee, according to Macartney, was "a wartime organization carrying out certain pragmatically necessary duties, and the recognition of it, in that capacity, carried no implication about a future Czecho-Slovak State" (11). Such a formulation of Great Britain's war aims allows undoubtedly to assume that the Bdtish Government considered, even in 1940, further existence of the Slovak State conforms with Great Britain's war aims. The Foreign Office was quite explicit in this regard even in letters addressed to Dr. Benes. When Dr. Benes, in his letter of July 18, 1940, to Lord Halifax, expressed his thanks to His Majesty's Government for the stand which Great Britain took with regard to the events of March 15, 1939, and implied that the British Government "by so doing have solemnly emphasized the political and legal continuity of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," the Foreign Of£ice did not fail to correct Dr. Benes' "li1beral" interpretation. Lord Halifax on behalf of His Majesty's Government wrote emphatically to Dr. Benes that "it cannot be presumed that His Majesty's Government 56 SLOVAKIA necessarily share your conclusion, drawn in your letter: namely, that by their attitude after the events of March 15, 1939, His Majesty's Government have taken any particular attitude concerning the legal continuity of the CzechoSlovak Republic. The acts of His Majesty's Government had the significance that they protested against the changes brought about in Czecho-Slovakia by German military action, and that they stressed that in their opinion these changes had no legal basis ... " (12). In the same letter signed by Lord Halifax on July 18, 1940, there are also some other interesting points regarding Slovakia. His Majesty's Government were, according to Halifax, in principle ready to recognize the Provisional Czecho-Slovak Government," but it was added that "this Provisional Government is to be a representative government of the Czech and Slovak peoples and that it is intended that also the Czecho-Slovak State Council will be of fully representative character and will include the recognized Czech and Slovak leaders abroad, as far as they have not been included in the Provisional Government" (13). We can say, therefore, that the British Government paid, in view of the circumstances, unexpected attention to the Slovak question by stressing that it was ready to recognize Benes' exiled Provisional Government only on the condition of full Slovak participation, and by making a clear distinction between the Czechs and the Slovaks. From Dr. Benes' acts against Slovaks who did not share his political views and ambitions, we can conclude that he was aware of possible dangers for his plans on account of the above British attitude towards Slovakia and the Slovaks. Benes used all means (denunciation, false accusations, etc) to get rid of not only Slovaks advocating Slovakia's right to self-determination (14), but also of Slovaks like Dr. Milan Hod.fa and Dr. Stephen Osusky. Dr. Benes did his utmost to discredit both in England and in the U. S. A. simply because they did not share his views as to the future of Slovakia. The first Consul of the Slovak Republic, Milan P. Harminc, saved himself from vengeance and trouble only by volunteering into the British Army overseas thus abandoning all political activity. SLOVAKIA 57 All this allows us to believe, even on the basis of documents which are far from complete, that there was a fair possibility to give Central Europe, and in it to the Slovak question, quite a different organiZiation from that advocated by. Dr. Benes and imposed in the end by the Soviet Union, had the British view prevailed. No doubt it would also have required a much clearer stand and understanding of Slovak politicians in Great Britain (Hodza, Osusky, Pauliny-Toth, etc.) who did not agree with Dr. Benes or denounced his machinations, undemocratic procedures, and utter disregard for Slovakia's aspirations (15), but did little or nothing positively to influence the Western Powers and to obtain a recognition of a Slovak exiled Committee or a Provisional Government. The first Slovak Consul apparently failed to use, for his country's future, all the good will and inclination of the British Government to recognize him, even after Poland was defeated, as Consul of Slovakia in London, which he probably would have been able to do, had the Slovak politicians in London supported him. Favorable British attitude towards Slovakia found its expression again before the end of the war when Dr. Benes travelled, in spite of clear hints of the British Government and Parliament, to Moscow and signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, which treaty later helped the Soviet to penetrate into Central Europe and to establish there Communist rule and statellite governments. The British Government allowed, in 1943, Slovak exiles, headed by Peter Pridavok, to organize the Slovak National Council in London which opposed Dr. Benes' policy and advocated independence for Slovakia (16). Unfortunately, it was too late for a change in the fate of Slovakia. Not only did international events help Dr. Benes to accomplish his plans of subjugation of Slovakia but also some Slovak politicians in London and in Slovakia gave a hand to Dr. Benes and Stalin in order to enslave the Slovak people and to rob them of statehood and independence. A study of the British attitude towards Slovakia's aspirations for self-government is, nevertheless, quite an interesting chapter in Slovakia's history of the period 1938-1945 and deserves further research. 58 SLOVAKIA REFERENCES AND DOCUMENTS (1) F'or information on the international recognition of the Slovak Repwblic see: J . M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Speller and Sons, New Yoii{, 1960; J. A. !Mikus: /La Slavaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, '195.5; J. M. Kirschbaum: Nal boj j o samostatnost', Oleveland, :1958; Gi,]bert Oddo: Slovakia and its People, Speller and Sons, New Ywk, 1960. ~2) See attached Document No. 'l. (3) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, 119118-1941.5, Series D; Vol. W, Document No. 234, attached ias Document No. 2. {4) Jlbidem, Document No. 220, attached as Document No. 3. (5) See attaohed Document No. 4. (~ See attached Document No. 5. {7) See attached Document No. 6. {8) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, lJ!ll!M.945, Series D; Document No. 205 or J. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Part IV, p. 280.281. (9) !For full text see J . M. KiTschlbaum, QIP. cit., p. 265. { 10) C. A. Ma~rtney: October Fifteenth, A History of Modern Hungary, Edinburgh University Press, 1957, Parit I, p. 376. {ltl) ]bidem, p . 377. r~l.12) !For foll text see Memoirs of Edward Bene!, London, 19.54, p. •108. On March 15, 1939, the Germans occupied only BohemiaM<Yl'cWia and, therefore, the British protest could not refer to SlovaJcia's proclamation cxf •i ndependence. -0:IJ3) Memoirs of Edward Benes, ,p. 1110. ,Cl4) iPeter Pridavok and several other Slovak!s were confined or int erned in concentration camps on the denun:Cilation cxf Dr. Benes and his supporters of beiIJJg Nazi agents, which, of course, was a malicious and false accusat ion which later was d,ismi ssed by British authorities. 015) See Dr. Osusky's pamphlet "Bene! and Slovakia" and also J. M. Kirschlbaum, op. cit., p. ,286. q16) See memoranda of the Slovak National Council in J . M. Ki~schlbaum's op. cit., pp. 289, 296, 298, 304. 309, etc. DOOUIMENT NO. 1 His EX1Cellency Mr. Ferdinand Durcansky M!inister of Foreign Affairs Bratis}ava Your Excellency: On the instruction Orf the Secretacy of St ate for Foreign .Afifairs I have the honour to inform you that His Majesty's Governmen,t in the United Kin gdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slov-aki!a with residence in Bratislava. Pending preparation of my Commission I have the honour to request promsional recognition •by the Slov.a!k Government as ms Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of thi s opporturuity to ex;press to yowr Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. PE'IlER PAIR.ES, M. P., H. M. Con'sul. 1 SLOVAKIA 59 DOOUIMEN.l' NO. 2 Documents on Ger,man Foreign Policy, 1918-J1945, Series D, Vol. IV No. 2314' 1'94!].i/4{3'5217 " Ambassador Henderson to Foreign Minister Rilbbenitrop Berlin, Marc'h 15, 11939 Pol. 11V 1700 My Dear Reichminii,ster: Lord Ibli1f.ax has instructed me to take the earliest 01PP<>rtunity to convey the following message to the German Government: His Majesty's G01Vernment have no desire to illlteinfere unnecessarily in a matter with which other Governments may be more dixe'c tly conlcerned than His Majesty's G01Vernrnelllt in the United Kingdom. They are, however, -a s the German Go,vernment will surely aippreciJate, deeply concerned for t'he success of ahl efforts to restore coillfidence and a relaxat-ion of tension in Europe. This seems to them more particularily des-iraible at a moment when a start is being made with discussfoonis Oif economic swbjects to which His Majesty's Government believe, the Gel'llllan Goverrnment attach not less importance than they do themselves, and the fruitful development of which depends so directly upon a genel'al sta-te of confidence. From tha-t po.init of view t'hey would deplore any action in Central Europe which would cause a setback to the growth of th-is generial coillf,i dence on which all impro:vemerut in the economdc situation depends and to whic_h such imrprovement might i-n its turn contribute. · Yours sincere-ly, NIEV'.l!LI.iE HlEN!DIE.RSON. DOOlJlMENTI' NO. 3 Documents on Foreign Policy 191'8-ll945, Series D, Vol. IV NO. 220 [40/76461: The Ambassador in Great Britain to the Foreign Ministry TELEGRAM London, March 14, 1009 Urgent No. fJ7 of Ma!I"ch 114 Attitude of British Government toward co•Illflict between Czeichia and Slovaki:a was further clarified yesterday by HaJifax's speech, statements 1by the new Department of the Foreign Office, as well as by attitudes of press itself. British Government regards constitutional settlement of relations between Slovakia and Czechii.a as an internal concern of the Czechoslovak state in which Great Britain has nio part. The guarantee of the frontier-s O!f the CzechoslOV1aik State envisaged by Great Britain at Munich is reg-a rded as not yet in force, as the uontier it's elf has not yet 'been 1finally fixed, and the prerequisite for the Brutish ,g uarantee is the unde.rtaking of a like guarantee by other signatories to the Munieh Agreemerut. However, even -iif such a guarantee already existed, it could come into force, according to statements in the press, only "in the event of an 60 SLOVAKIA Ulllprovoked atta·ck" ~1). The mo.re the outward appearance of the right to self-determination, of the people concerned is preserved, the greater will be the understanding among the public here for a new and stable s·e ttlement, especially as on aU sides the desire exri sts to keep out of a remote afifair which does not affect Br.itish interests. D]RKSEN. 1 •~1 This attitude is confia-med hy Chamlberlain 1s reply to a question by Attlee on the same day in the House of Common,s (quoted in the GeI"man White Book, Document No. 257): "I am not sure what the Right Honoralble Gentleman thinks that we should do. I might remind him that the proposed ,g uarantee is one against uniprovoked aggression on Czechoslov,akia. No such ,aggression has yet taken place." DOOUMJENT NO. 4 Letter of the British Consulate in Bratislarva to the Chief Customs Officer in Do,v er, Great Britain Bratislava Slovakia July 6, 1939 Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the 'b earer of this letter, Mr. M. Paul Harminc, who is ,arriving by packet-'boat next week, on Wednesday or Thursday, has been appointed Slovak Consul in London to take up his duties there. No facilities exist here for giving him a dipiomatic visa since there is no diplomatic representative at the capital of the Slovak State. But 'I am furnishing Mr. Harminc with this letter ,as proof of his officiaJ position and shall be most grateful if he caru be granted the usual facilities on landing which are customarily given to the consular representatives of a foreign state on thek fiir,s t arI"ival in the United Kingdom. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, :PARiES, H. M. Consul. The Chief Customs Officer Dover. 1) DOCUMIENrf NO. 5 A letter of the Foreign Office to the Slovak Cornsul, regarding his official status Foreign Oiifice, S.W.I. August 117, :1009 Sir: With reference to your letter of August 9, I am directed by ¥iscount Halifax to inforun you that there is no objection on the part of His Majesty's Government to your entering forthwith upon your functions as Consul of Slovakia in London. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, R. DUNBAR. M. P . Harminc, Esq. Consul of Slovakia. 61 SLOVAKIA DOCUMiENT NO. 6 Great Britain reco_gnized the Slovak Oonsul even after the Second World War started No. C 1'5393/ 2875/ 12 Foreign O!fifice, S. W. I. October J2, '1 009 Dear Monsieur Haruninc: With referenice to ou:r conversation on September 28 regarding y,o ur position in this countr y, I am no:w alble to inform you that you will continue to be recognized as the Slorvak Consul in London. Yours sincerely, I. KI!RKPATRICK. • • • WHO SAID IT? Czecho-Slovakia, as created by the Paris Peace Conference is then a land of mino.rities, a country in which, in fact, there is no majority. By one of the oldest and most ironical of necess ities, the statesmen of Pa r is, who undertook to resolve the Hapsburg Monarchy info its ethn ic fractions in accordance with the rights of peoples, found themselves in the end condemned to create a new state in which the racial elements were as diverse and as irreconci lable as either the Austrian or Hungarian states of the pre-war era." - ~Frank H. Simonds: Can Europe Keep the Peace? - New York, London, '19311; p. 99) . • • • " . .. the Czechoslovak Republic was the least natural state created afte.r world War I. Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia fo r med the parts of a long, unnatural, composite area, with varied rel ief, peoples, communicat ions and economic development." - (Ge·o rge W. >Hoffman: A Geography of Eu rope, University oif Texas, [G53; p. 567) . • • • " If one considers the question of the viability of Czechoslovakia from the strict point of view of geography and ethnography, there would indeed seem to be little hope for the futur e of this curiously composite state." (Herbert Adam Gibbons: Europe Since 1008; p. 258). • • • " From the beginning of the Republic the more e xt remist rulers in Prague asserted that the Czech and Slovak languages we re identical ; they argued that, in reality, the Slovak was only a d ialect of the Czech. The Slovaks, however, rejected this theory, and declared that thefr language, wh ile closely resembl ing the Czech, was a separate idiom." - M. W. Fodor: Plot and Counterplot in Cen ral Eu rope, p. 36).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Policy and Slovakia - 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 50-61 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/45ef396945055687fcc826bbb6a33738.pdf d482228ad3a96993a77c403e5a7721dd PDF Text Text 62 SLOVAKIA SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM By Joseph Pauco Some Americans of Slovak ancestory who visit Slovakia keep in touch with me and keep me up to date as to what is or has recently transpired in our ancestoral homeland. From this I can faithfully present the following report about oppressed Slovakia under Czech Communism. The Scarcity of News Everyone who receives mail from Slovakia complains of the scarcity of news. In fact very little news is ever mentioned in personal letters. The only news we get and learn from the writer of any letter is that he is still living or that such and such are alive or that so and so of the family is dead. No one writing to America dare mention anything detrimental or in opposition to the regime. Most of our information about what is transpiring in Slovakia comes from the visitors. Last year's visitors to Slovakia disclosed the fact that a Slovak there, sending mail out of the country, must personally present every letter unsealed at the postal window and identify himself - for obvious reasons. One of our friends brought this message from his kin: Tell our relatives in America that they should not expect any details in our letters - because we may only praise our present regime. Whilst visiting there my friend learned of the cruel fate that happened to a young man whose father surprised him with an automobile from America. As soon as the communist authorities heard that he received the automobile they laid him off. When he inquired as to the reason for this, he was told that he has a wealthy American father who brought him a car; therefore let the father provide a living for him! A communist customs official directed a Slovak American lady to inform every one in America "not to bring or send clothes from America. We need American dollars �SLOVAKIA 63 with which to buy better things than those that you bring or send to us." Other visitor to Slovakia affirmed that: "The duty on new articles sent from the USA to Slovakia is several times higher than the value of the article. Hence the Slovak people there often beg and advise Americans not to send new clothing, shoes, etc." Communist Persecution of Slovak Peasants One of our countrymen who returned from Slovakia reports: "I was in Slovakia and I didn't recognize my own hometown. Much is changed. Since 1945 standards of living dropped and the people been living through nothing but woeful poverty, adversity and persecution. "Your Slovak-American press reports that everything is being communized," they told to my friend; "but you probably do not know that every farmer is resisting this as long as he possibly can. Not one wants to give up what he has; not one of them freely volunteers to be communized. "First the communist regime decreed that every farmer must turn over to the State a specific portion of the crop - so much grain, potatoes, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk and other produce. If the farmer was unable the government got after him and asked him 'Will you sign?' If he declined to sign, he was taken a few days later to the police headquarters. "At the headquarters he was always investigated and intimidated - about his field, about his family, his work, where and who his kin is, where each member of the family works, with what girl does his son keep company, where his relatives live. "Whether he has any relatives in the United States of America, whether they write and send packages or money to him; and other similar questions. After all these always comes the persistent question: 'Will you sign?' If he declines again, the policeman grab his arms, twist them, stick a pen into his fingers and force him to sign. Some of the farmers are held at the police seven-ten days, �64 SLOVAKIA and tortured two or three times a day - to get them to give up their farms. "Those who were more determined would hold out longer, but even they would eventually yield. Indeed all those, whom I saw and whom I talked, the average American might be tempted to consider stupid or mental for they certainly talk peculiarly scared and nervous like, obviously because of the terror and beatings to which they were subjected. "Hence, they finally resign themselves to the hopeless fate and role to which the State subjects them. They thus in practice become utter slaves of the State. In enforcing the commune upon them, the State would dismiss the farmer's son or daughter from office work under the pretext that peasant and his family is sabotaging the commune. "My sister complained bitterly about this miserable situation. Her husband was persecuted and terrorized, her son was kicked out of the factory, and our priest-uncle was spirited away to the concentration camp. And last summer the state police came and ransacked her house and recorded all that she had in it. Every little item they checked and recorded - clothing, furniture, all her goods, stationary, toiletries, rags. Nothing is private to the communists." Slovaks Are Fleeing Into the Mountains Another visitor to Slovakia records: "As regards recruiting into the commune, this is done both by propaganda and terrorizing. In my hometown this was done even whilst I was there. Sixty communists poured out of a bus every morning to intimidate the farmers who resisted giving up their fields to the State. "My cousin was detained last spring by the regional national committee for investigation. He was beaten and locked up in a dark basement for two days. "My brother-in-law, who is on pension and who refused to turn over his property to the communist regime. had his pension taken away for good. "At the time of my visit to my hometown it was like �SLOVAKIA 65 doomsday. I wanted to visit with some of my friends with whom I used to chum around in my youth and who were still living, but they were afraid to talk to me. About twenty of the male friends fled before the police into the mountains. "Many of the other farmers of the country were likewise fleeing into the hills. "I am a rough coal miner. I never wept; but what I saw in my native town moved me to tears and I cried with many of the men there. They weep both out of just anger and out of bitter despair; for they are helpless and powerless to prevent their own plots of land from going to waste or to the communist regime. "I visited Slovakia when Khrushchev was preparing to visit America. Everyone who spoke of his visit, frowned on it, and prayed for the American leaders. "I'd love to visit again my native town in Slovakia; but not under communism, because my heart would break over the plight of my fellow countrymen." Whom Does Communism Permit to Attend the University Other Slovak American who visited Slovakia learned that: "I visited my native city - Kosice. My relatives have children whom they would like to send to the University. Out of five of them only one was able to send his son to a University. When I questioned them how such discrimination is possible, they answered: "'We are deeply worried when our children finish the required schooling. Besides, it is not easy to get permission to send one's child to a University; for 75 percent of the students must be of the so-called "proletariat families" - that is, of the already communized families. "'The growth of purely Slovak intelligentsia is thus restricted, indeed decreased.' "Another sad situation in Slovakia is this: "People live, so to speak, from hand to mouth. That is, they do not put away anything into the bank - either because they do not have anything to put in or because they do not trust communist banks or communist money. �66 SLOVAKIA "My cousin lives with her husband and children in a State home. It is a large home to house several families of workers - the privileged class which does not pay rent. The State leaves them in the apartments free of rent, because it does not wish to stir up scandal against those who are its privileged favorites. Hence, if these do not contribute to the support of the State, how can the State function - unless it discriminates against and takes from the majority of the Slovak populace? "It is obvious that the State does this deliberately both so that there would be no savings and so that all would live in State owned houses and apartments, where it is the easier for the State to check and control each family. Here and there, of course, a family will attempt to build its own home - but this is done under tremendous hardships. Nevertheless, though it is difficult to secure labor, unemployment is on the rise among the Slovak people - another reason why bitterness is increasing against communists." Slovak Youth lndoctrinat.ed and Educat.ed Against God The Communists in Slovakia concern themselves to turn Slovak youth against God and religion and to bring it up without religion is quite evident. Every visitor mentions this. We have first hand evidence of this policy even from the Communist daily "Praca"; for instance, under the date of December 6, 1959, under the heading "Circle of Young Atheists" we read: "In the schools of Slovakia Slovak youth is being organized and trained against God and the Church." The article mentions such an organized group or circle in a school on Dubova Street in Bratislava. The previous year the circle had 15 members; last year it had 73 members. Each circle, as then organized, the article claimed, was made up of eleventh graders. "What do these 'circles' do?" The article asks and answers this thus: "This year we read and discuss Lunacarsky's book 'Why It Is Impossible To Believe In God'" (Communists spell God with a small initial letter.) In Prague a so-called new "Broadcast University" �SLOVAKIA 67 was founded. The Chicago Daily News carried this short news-item on one of this "university's" lectures: CZE,CH RADIO ANAIL YZES Bl·BLE Bonn, Germany, Jan. 9 (1960) - Lectures in Czecho-Slovakia's "Radio University" have been at some pains recently to analyze sections of the Bible. The Bible, these Communist speakers argued, contains a good deal of brutality and immorality. As one example they cited the killing of the priests of Baal. The program was in reply to a listener who had written to defend Christianity, and to argue that the world would be a better place if everyone followed Christian principles. Religion, the lecturers said, had not been able to eliminate wars or to prevent fascism. Most of the good in religious ideas, the lecturers added, was of non-religious origin. This then is the way Czech Communists indoctrinate and poison the minds of the young and the faithful. Communist Destruction of Slovak Churches A visiting countryman reports: "In my native village, a few days prior to my arrival, the communist authorities closed the church and with my own eyes I saw posted on it the communists' official sign: 'STATE PROPERTY.' "My kinsfolks disclosed to me that their pastor was forced to preach most cautiously. He was unable to preach what he wished or as his heart and conscience dictated to him. Upon learning of this the faithful would crowd evenings after work into the church for prolonged periods of prayer - without their shepherd. So the civil authorities closed the church. "The parishioners then began to meet to pray at the outdoor on the outskirts of the village; but this was not for long, for not many days later heavily armed militia swooped down upon them and dispersed them. Terrorized people cried and defended themselves bare-handed as best they could. "From precedent Slovak citizenry now knows that communist authorities will turn any church into a granary or theatre or some propaganda house - as the communists did elsewhere and in Russia. "Terrorized peasants everywhere told me that: "'Everyone who is in the employment of the State �68 SLOVAKIA teachers, police, soldiers and the like - must renounce their faith and church. Students attending the University must likewise do so. Anyone who refuses to conform, looses his rights, his place and position. "I spoke with my cousin-priest who was held in prison for a very long time and who is now forced to work in a factory, and he revealed nervously how the Church situation is there: 'Worse,' he told me fearfully, 'than you or your American press realizes and reports; for only he who lived through it all can correctly tell of it. For instance, no priest can be sure in the evening when he retires that in the morning when he gets up he will be able to enter his own church again. He may have been dragged out of bed at night and spirited away to prison.' "Others again will tell you that the most tragic thing is that the seminaries were all closed down; only the State directed one in Bratislava is allowed to be opened, and it permits only a ridiculously small token number of seminarians. "It is public knowledge that the professors in this seminary are favorably disposed to the communist regime ; and even though they should not be, the seven or eight seminarians that are annually ordained are entirely too few for the 4 million inhabitants of Slovakia. More priests die annually in one diocese than that. Old priests are rapidly dying off - as they must; and there are none, or proportionately very few, to replace them. Such a situation is disastrous to the Church. In a generation or two there will scarcily be enough priests in the country to supply a town let alone the whole country. In the course of a few years Slovakia will be progressively without priests and churches. And not only for this reason. The State is trying to bring up an irreligious and churchless population. Tremendous pressure, for instance, is exerted upon the youth, especially in the Universities, to have nothing to do with religion. Students are mostly drawn from trusty communist circles or families ; and if one or the other of these is noticed to cling more to the Sacred Scriptures than to Karl Marx, he is immediately expelled. Communism wants only a communist intelligentsia. In key positions this in- �SLOVAKIA 69 telligentsia can control the world, the thoughts of men and have its own 'communist religion'." The Church Is the Greatest Opponent of Communism Though the press in Slovakia is completely controlled and carefully censored by the communists in order the more overtly and effectively to undermine religion and popularize communism, readers nevertheless can readily notice what and how this propaganda is doing and working against the Church and religion. No matter how careful the communist press is it cannot help but here and there expose and betray itself and its objectives. For example, the daily "PRACA" of November 3, 1959 treats of the "United Efforts of the Vatican." Among other things it writes: "Serfdom, feudalism and bourgeoisism - and bureaucracy - on the one side and the church on the other side needed each other in order to control the new, progressive and rapidly developing power of the revolutionary mass of serfs, non-farmers and workers, particularly after the laboring class proposed and obtained such a powerful ideological arsenal as is Marxism and such wonderful organizers as communism and its party are ... Religion and the Church remain practically the last and only ideological defenses and the only hope of the dying old world. . . Rapidly rising peaceful powers of the earth press the enemy to rely more and more on the ideological arsenal of religion and religion's organization. The defenders of darkness are seriously interested in the leadership of reli,gion. "The Vatican, as the supreme head and center of darkness and ideological warfare against progress, is preparing for total mobilization. For instance, the Vatican is preparing an ecumenical council, so that in the ensuing discussions with the 'separated brethren' the matter of political and ideological cooperation and mutual objectives against communism will be considered and achieved. "And if it should come to the union of Christians, this would be only so that the Vatican can the more successfully serve the disintegrating imperialistic colonial system and fight for the salvation of capitalism and strengthen the reactionary positions of the Church." �70 SLOVAKIA So the communist press alleges. This, however, is merely one instance of how the communistic press works. Those who accept such "revelations" of the communist press as a genuine contribution to the peace and concord of coexistence, must, in view of all this, be either deceived or stupid or mentally sick. The Chasm Between the Slovaks and Czechs I met another visitor from Slovakia and he expressed his impressions this way: "My brother works in an office there and he explained how things stand with him and what life is like in CzechoSlovakia. "'Everybody,' he said, 'is living in fear - scared; because in every office there sits a security agent, who records or notes for the police everything what he observes. "He is a common individual who works in the office like all of us; but he has this special personal assignment. Hence, wherever it is possible, Slovak officials, whether in the office or in the factory, sabotage the work. Sometimes Slovaks even go on strike; but Czechs have never gone on a strike. . "Czechs merely inquire of the Slovaks: 'What's happening in Slovakia?' - as if to say, they wish the Slovaks would begin a revolution in Slovakia. Then the Czech will sit back, observe and take credit for being a good and reliable citizens and deserving of better consideration, better positions and better treatment - in any kind of governmen, even foreign. "It's the same with listening to radio broadcasts. Most Slovaks listen to foreign broadcasts, watch Austrian TV programs, and the like. But not so the Czechs. They, allegedly, dislike Austrians and Germans. "Czechs would like the world to believe that Slovaks like to fraternalize with them (with Czechs); but this is untrue and absurd. S 1 o v a k s detest fraternalizing with Czechs - for obvious reasons. The true Slovak, because of the Czech persecution and exploitation of Slovakia and because of the common tendency amongst the Czechs to toy around sympathetically with communism and irreli- �SLOVAKIA 71 gion, is very wary of the Czech. If there was any fraternalizing between the Czech and Slovak before the First World War, there is none since the Czech attempt to Czechjze Slovakia after the formation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovaks are convinced that it is impossible to coexist let alone live with the Czechs in one State. "I experienced this myself in Praha. Czech youth wholly does not comprehend the Slovak or the Slovak attitude. Prague youths, when I addressed them, persistently asked me, 'What are you, a Polak?' And my brother, who lives in Slovakia, would try to comfort me and say: 'Don't be amazed at this. They do not care to understand the Slovak tongue, muchless the Slovak and his democratic views. They behold him with disdain and contempt.' "Let me mention what I learned of what happened in 1956 when the Hungarians revolted. The Slovak people were hoping for a general war to break out, with America rushing to aid free Hungary, but nothing like this happened. "The Czechs, instead, sent a whole armed division against the revolting Hungarians. By chance I met in New York City a Hungarian who fought in that revolt and he told me that the revolting Hungarians got aid only from two places - from Spain and from Slovakia. The Slovaks somehow or another spirited away to them 500 loaded machine guns, a great quantity of hand grenades and ammuniti9n and a lot of bandages, and the Spaniards sent over a planeload of bazookas." I asked my Slovak informant how the Slovaks in Slovakia viewed the liquidation of the Hungarian revolt and he answered me : "They were tremendously disappointed - and they are so even at present. Nevertheless they still hope that America will help liberate all of them. And, if America does not help them, they certainly will despair." A Message To American Statesmen A friend of mine brought this message from Slovakia: "Tell all American Slovaks to work tirelessly for a free Slovakia. Let them rest assured that we are praying for them. And we also pray that God might enlighten the �72 SLOVAKIA minds of your American statesmen so that they might not be naive and might not betray the nations behind the Iron Curtain, not even our Slovak nation, because we await our rescue and liberation from America, her President and Government. Indeed, there has been already enough suffering, misery, real and judicial murders. There is no greater punishment for us than this communist hell. The sooner America realizes this, the better for her." Need anything be added to the above? Americans of Slovak descent, joined together in the Slovak League of America, are expending every effort in this direction to liberate the Slovaks at home and secure for them the independence they have fought for so many hundreds of years. The adamant anti-communist stand of the League is well known. The Slovak League of America, an American institution, believes that it is in the highest interest of the security and welfare of the United States, that the Government of the United States fully recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to freedom and independence. Conclusion This then is the situation in Slovakia today. In reporting this I presented only some incidents and facts. In these our own United States of America, many people are not aware of what is happening behind the Iron Curtain. In my opinion, the things that are happening in Slovakia, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Rumania, in Yugoslavia and other communist controlled countries, indeed in Russia and China themselves, is not only a concern of these people and nations but also of every other country that does not wish to succumb to communism. America is no exception. Indeed America is and will be most responsible and reprehensible, I believe, in the eyes of world historians - and of the world in years to come - if communism spreads. Only America can prevent or limit its spread and contain and isolate it. I personally do not think that to isolate it is to solve the problem of communism; on the contrary, world communism has assumed such proportions that it cannot be isolated anymore. Communism overtook China. It is influencing other �SLOVAKIA 73 Asiatic people and it is penetrating into Africa. Some Americans rejoice that shaking hands with Khrushchev is solving the problem; but to do so is a stab in the back of those who suffer under communism. To solve it, America and the whole world must not run away with the form of government established for us by our American founders . Freedom is the right of our 181 million American people; but this is also the right of every people. The threats of Kremlin ought not make Americans wince and submit to the dictates of Khrushchev as to how a Paris conference must end or whether our president should or should not go to Tokyo. Because after such a dictate will encourage Khrushchev to continue further. The aim of communism even now in 1960 is the proletariat's world rule. Khrushchev said this summer, "I'd love to see the red banner flying over the whole world in my lifetime." • • • WHO SAID IT? The Czechs . . . . are inclined to be both socialistic in politics and agnostic in religion. The Slovaks on the other ·hand ... as conservative peasantry are for the most part loyal and pious Roman Catholics. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that friction developed between them." - (F. Lee Benm;: Europe Since 1914, New Y:ork, 193:11; p. 556). • • • "The population question is further complicated by the ant'agonism of the Czechs and Slovaks themselves. The Czechs, who outnumber the Slovaks almost two to one ... are more inclined toward political liberalism and religious scepticism .... The Slovaks are among the most pious and conservative of peasant folks . .." - (Walter C. Langsam: The World Since 1914, New York, 1953; p. 453). • • • "Some of the .radica,ls and the nationalists in parliament demanded an absolute sep·a ration of church and state, and in January 1920, as part of the so-called 'Away From Rome' movement, there was established a Czechoslovak National Church which proclaimed its independence of the papacy and abolished the requirement of celibacy for the clergy. This church, however, gained almost no Slovak adherents and fewer than a million Czech members." - (Walter C. Langsam : The World since 1914, New York, '1•953; p. 45'1). � 62 SLOVAKIA SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM By Joseph Pauco Some Americans of Slovak ancestory who visit Slovakia keep in touch with me and keep me up to date as to what is or has recently transpired in our ancestoral homeland. From this I can faithfully present the following report about oppressed Slovakia under Czech Communism. The Scarcity of News Everyone who receives mail from Slovakia complains of the scarcity of news. In fact very little news is ever mentioned in personal letters. The only news we get and learn from the writer of any letter is that he is still living or that such and such are alive or that so and so of the family is dead. No one writing to America dare mention anything detrimental or in opposition to the regime. Most of our information about what is transpiring in Slovakia comes from the visitors. Last year's visitors to Slovakia disclosed the fact that a Slovak there, sending mail out of the country, must personally present every letter unsealed at the postal window and identify himself - for obvious reasons. One of our friends brought this message from his kin: Tell our relatives in America that they should not expect any details in our letters - because we may only praise our present regime. Whilst visiting there my friend learned of the cruel fate that happened to a young man whose father surprised him with an automobile from America. As soon as the communist authorities heard that he received the automobile they laid him off. When he inquired as to the reason for this, he was told that he has a wealthy American father who brought him a car; therefore let the father provide a living for him! A communist customs official directed a Slovak American lady to inform every one in America "not to bring or send clothes from America. We need American dollars �SLOVAKIA 63 with which to buy better things than those that you bring or send to us." Other visitor to Slovakia affirmed that: "The duty on new articles sent from the USA to Slovakia is several times higher than the value of the article. Hence the Slovak people there often beg and advise Americans not to send new clothing, shoes, etc." Communist Persecution of Slovak Peasants One of our countrymen who returned from Slovakia reports: "I was in Slovakia and I didn't recognize my own hometown. Much is changed. Since 1945 standards of living dropped and the people been living through nothing but woeful poverty, adversity and persecution. "Your Slovak-American press reports that everything is being communized," they told to my friend; "but you probably do not know that every farmer is resisting this as long as he possibly can. Not one wants to give up what he has; not one of them freely volunteers to be communized. "First the communist regime decreed that every farmer must turn over to the State a specific portion of the crop - so much grain, potatoes, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk and other produce. If the farmer was unable the government got after him and asked him 'Will you sign?' If he declined to sign, he was taken a few days later to the police headquarters. "At the headquarters he was always investigated and intimidated - about his field, about his family, his work, where and who his kin is, where each member of the family works, with what girl does his son keep company, where his relatives live. "Whether he has any relatives in the United States of America, whether they write and send packages or money to him; and other similar questions. After all these always comes the persistent question: 'Will you sign?' If he declines again, the policeman grab his arms, twist them, stick a pen into his fingers and force him to sign. Some of the farmers are held at the police seven-ten days, �64 SLOVAKIA and tortured two or three times a day - to get them to give up their farms. "Those who were more determined would hold out longer, but even they would eventually yield. Indeed all those, whom I saw and whom I talked, the average American might be tempted to consider stupid or mental for they certainly talk peculiarly scared and nervous like, obviously because of the terror and beatings to which they were subjected. "Hence, they finally resign themselves to the hopeless fate and role to which the State subjects them. They thus in practice become utter slaves of the State. In enforcing the commune upon them, the State would dismiss the farmer's son or daughter from office work under the pretext that peasant and his family is sabotaging the commune. "My sister complained bitterly about this miserable situation. Her husband was persecuted and terrorized, her son was kicked out of the factory, and our priest-uncle was spirited away to the concentration camp. And last summer the state police came and ransacked her house and recorded all that she had in it. Every little item they checked and recorded - clothing, furniture, all her goods, stationary, toiletries, rags. Nothing is private to the communists." Slovaks Are Fleeing Into the Mountains Another visitor to Slovakia records: "As regards recruiting into the commune, this is done both by propaganda and terrorizing. In my hometown this was done even whilst I was there. Sixty communists poured out of a bus every morning to intimidate the farmers who resisted giving up their fields to the State. "My cousin was detained last spring by the regional national committee for investigation. He was beaten and locked up in a dark basement for two days. "My brother-in-law, who is on pension and who refused to turn over his property to the communist regime. had his pension taken away for good. "At the time of my visit to my hometown it was like �SLOVAKIA 65 doomsday. I wanted to visit with some of my friends with whom I used to chum around in my youth and who were still living, but they were afraid to talk to me. About twenty of the male friends fled before the police into the mountains. "Many of the other farmers of the country were likewise fleeing into the hills. "I am a rough coal miner. I never wept; but what I saw in my native town moved me to tears and I cried with many of the men there. They weep both out of just anger and out of bitter despair; for they are helpless and powerless to prevent their own plots of land from going to waste or to the communist regime. "I visited Slovakia when Khrushchev was preparing to visit America. Everyone who spoke of his visit, frowned on it, and prayed for the American leaders. "I'd love to visit again my native town in Slovakia; but not under communism, because my heart would break over the plight of my fellow countrymen." Whom Does Communism Permit to Attend the University Other Slovak American who visited Slovakia learned that: "I visited my native city - Kosice. My relatives have children whom they would like to send to the University. Out of five of them only one was able to send his son to a University. When I questioned them how such discrimination is possible, they answered: "'We are deeply worried when our children finish the required schooling. Besides, it is not easy to get permission to send one's child to a University; for 75 percent of the students must be of the so-called "proletariat families" - that is, of the already communized families. "'The growth of purely Slovak intelligentsia is thus restricted, indeed decreased.' "Another sad situation in Slovakia is this: "People live, so to speak, from hand to mouth. That is, they do not put away anything into the bank - either because they do not have anything to put in or because they do not trust communist banks or communist money. �66 SLOVAKIA "My cousin lives with her husband and children in a State home. It is a large home to house several families of workers - the privileged class which does not pay rent. The State leaves them in the apartments free of rent, because it does not wish to stir up scandal against those who are its privileged favorites. Hence, if these do not contribute to the support of the State, how can the State function - unless it discriminates against and takes from the majority of the Slovak populace? "It is obvious that the State does this deliberately both so that there would be no savings and so that all would live in State owned houses and apartments, where it is the easier for the State to check and control each family. Here and there, of course, a family will attempt to build its own home - but this is done under tremendous hardships. Nevertheless, though it is difficult to secure labor, unemployment is on the rise among the Slovak people - another reason why bitterness is increasing against communists." Slovak Youth lndoctrinat.ed and Educat.ed Against God The Communists in Slovakia concern themselves to turn Slovak youth against God and religion and to bring it up without religion is quite evident. Every visitor mentions this. We have first hand evidence of this policy even from the Communist daily "Praca"; for instance, under the date of December 6, 1959, under the heading "Circle of Young Atheists" we read: "In the schools of Slovakia Slovak youth is being organized and trained against God and the Church." The article mentions such an organized group or circle in a school on Dubova Street in Bratislava. The previous year the circle had 15 members; last year it had 73 members. Each circle, as then organized, the article claimed, was made up of eleventh graders. "What do these 'circles' do?" The article asks and answers this thus: "This year we read and discuss Lunacarsky's book 'Why It Is Impossible To Believe In God'" (Communists spell God with a small initial letter.) In Prague a so-called new "Broadcast University" �SLOVAKIA 67 was founded. The Chicago Daily News carried this short news-item on one of this "university's" lectures: CZE,CH RADIO ANAIL YZES Bl·BLE Bonn, Germany, Jan. 9 (1960) - Lectures in Czecho-Slovakia's "Radio University" have been at some pains recently to analyze sections of the Bible. The Bible, these Communist speakers argued, contains a good deal of brutality and immorality. As one example they cited the killing of the priests of Baal. The program was in reply to a listener who had written to defend Christianity, and to argue that the world would be a better place if everyone followed Christian principles. Religion, the lecturers said, had not been able to eliminate wars or to prevent fascism. Most of the good in religious ideas, the lecturers added, was of non-religious origin. This then is the way Czech Communists indoctrinate and poison the minds of the young and the faithful. Communist Destruction of Slovak Churches A visiting countryman reports: "In my native village, a few days prior to my arrival, the communist authorities closed the church and with my own eyes I saw posted on it the communists' official sign: 'STATE PROPERTY.' "My kinsfolks disclosed to me that their pastor was forced to preach most cautiously. He was unable to preach what he wished or as his heart and conscience dictated to him. Upon learning of this the faithful would crowd evenings after work into the church for prolonged periods of prayer - without their shepherd. So the civil authorities closed the church. "The parishioners then began to meet to pray at the outdoor on the outskirts of the village; but this was not for long, for not many days later heavily armed militia swooped down upon them and dispersed them. Terrorized people cried and defended themselves bare-handed as best they could. "From precedent Slovak citizenry now knows that communist authorities will turn any church into a granary or theatre or some propaganda house - as the communists did elsewhere and in Russia. "Terrorized peasants everywhere told me that: "'Everyone who is in the employment of the State �68 SLOVAKIA teachers, police, soldiers and the like - must renounce their faith and church. Students attending the University must likewise do so. Anyone who refuses to conform, looses his rights, his place and position. "I spoke with my cousin-priest who was held in prison for a very long time and who is now forced to work in a factory, and he revealed nervously how the Church situation is there: 'Worse,' he told me fearfully, 'than you or your American press realizes and reports; for only he who lived through it all can correctly tell of it. For instance, no priest can be sure in the evening when he retires that in the morning when he gets up he will be able to enter his own church again. He may have been dragged out of bed at night and spirited away to prison.' "Others again will tell you that the most tragic thing is that the seminaries were all closed down; only the State directed one in Bratislava is allowed to be opened, and it permits only a ridiculously small token number of seminarians. "It is public knowledge that the professors in this seminary are favorably disposed to the communist regime ; and even though they should not be, the seven or eight seminarians that are annually ordained are entirely too few for the 4 million inhabitants of Slovakia. More priests die annually in one diocese than that. Old priests are rapidly dying off - as they must; and there are none, or proportionately very few, to replace them. Such a situation is disastrous to the Church. In a generation or two there will scarcily be enough priests in the country to supply a town let alone the whole country. In the course of a few years Slovakia will be progressively without priests and churches. And not only for this reason. The State is trying to bring up an irreligious and churchless population. Tremendous pressure, for instance, is exerted upon the youth, especially in the Universities, to have nothing to do with religion. Students are mostly drawn from trusty communist circles or families ; and if one or the other of these is noticed to cling more to the Sacred Scriptures than to Karl Marx, he is immediately expelled. Communism wants only a communist intelligentsia. In key positions this in- �SLOVAKIA 69 telligentsia can control the world, the thoughts of men and have its own 'communist religion'." The Church Is the Greatest Opponent of Communism Though the press in Slovakia is completely controlled and carefully censored by the communists in order the more overtly and effectively to undermine religion and popularize communism, readers nevertheless can readily notice what and how this propaganda is doing and working against the Church and religion. No matter how careful the communist press is it cannot help but here and there expose and betray itself and its objectives. For example, the daily "PRACA" of November 3, 1959 treats of the "United Efforts of the Vatican." Among other things it writes: "Serfdom, feudalism and bourgeoisism - and bureaucracy - on the one side and the church on the other side needed each other in order to control the new, progressive and rapidly developing power of the revolutionary mass of serfs, non-farmers and workers, particularly after the laboring class proposed and obtained such a powerful ideological arsenal as is Marxism and such wonderful organizers as communism and its party are ... Religion and the Church remain practically the last and only ideological defenses and the only hope of the dying old world. . . Rapidly rising peaceful powers of the earth press the enemy to rely more and more on the ideological arsenal of religion and religion's organization. The defenders of darkness are seriously interested in the leadership of reli,gion. "The Vatican, as the supreme head and center of darkness and ideological warfare against progress, is preparing for total mobilization. For instance, the Vatican is preparing an ecumenical council, so that in the ensuing discussions with the 'separated brethren' the matter of political and ideological cooperation and mutual objectives against communism will be considered and achieved. "And if it should come to the union of Christians, this would be only so that the Vatican can the more successfully serve the disintegrating imperialistic colonial system and fight for the salvation of capitalism and strengthen the reactionary positions of the Church." �70 SLOVAKIA So the communist press alleges. This, however, is merely one instance of how the communistic press works. Those who accept such "revelations" of the communist press as a genuine contribution to the peace and concord of coexistence, must, in view of all this, be either deceived or stupid or mentally sick. The Chasm Between the Slovaks and Czechs I met another visitor from Slovakia and he expressed his impressions this way: "My brother works in an office there and he explained how things stand with him and what life is like in CzechoSlovakia. "'Everybody,' he said, 'is living in fear - scared; because in every office there sits a security agent, who records or notes for the police everything what he observes. "He is a common individual who works in the office like all of us; but he has this special personal assignment. Hence, wherever it is possible, Slovak officials, whether in the office or in the factory, sabotage the work. Sometimes Slovaks even go on strike; but Czechs have never gone on a strike. . "Czechs merely inquire of the Slovaks: 'What's happening in Slovakia?' - as if to say, they wish the Slovaks would begin a revolution in Slovakia. Then the Czech will sit back, observe and take credit for being a good and reliable citizens and deserving of better consideration, better positions and better treatment - in any kind of governmen, even foreign. "It's the same with listening to radio broadcasts. Most Slovaks listen to foreign broadcasts, watch Austrian TV programs, and the like. But not so the Czechs. They, allegedly, dislike Austrians and Germans. "Czechs would like the world to believe that Slovaks like to fraternalize with them (with Czechs); but this is untrue and absurd. S 1 o v a k s detest fraternalizing with Czechs - for obvious reasons. The true Slovak, because of the Czech persecution and exploitation of Slovakia and because of the common tendency amongst the Czechs to toy around sympathetically with communism and irreli- �SLOVAKIA 71 gion, is very wary of the Czech. If there was any fraternalizing between the Czech and Slovak before the First World War, there is none since the Czech attempt to Czechjze Slovakia after the formation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovaks are convinced that it is impossible to coexist let alone live with the Czechs in one State. "I experienced this myself in Praha. Czech youth wholly does not comprehend the Slovak or the Slovak attitude. Prague youths, when I addressed them, persistently asked me, 'What are you, a Polak?' And my brother, who lives in Slovakia, would try to comfort me and say: 'Don't be amazed at this. They do not care to understand the Slovak tongue, muchless the Slovak and his democratic views. They behold him with disdain and contempt.' "Let me mention what I learned of what happened in 1956 when the Hungarians revolted. The Slovak people were hoping for a general war to break out, with America rushing to aid free Hungary, but nothing like this happened. "The Czechs, instead, sent a whole armed division against the revolting Hungarians. By chance I met in New York City a Hungarian who fought in that revolt and he told me that the revolting Hungarians got aid only from two places - from Spain and from Slovakia. The Slovaks somehow or another spirited away to them 500 loaded machine guns, a great quantity of hand grenades and ammuniti9n and a lot of bandages, and the Spaniards sent over a planeload of bazookas." I asked my Slovak informant how the Slovaks in Slovakia viewed the liquidation of the Hungarian revolt and he answered me : "They were tremendously disappointed - and they are so even at present. Nevertheless they still hope that America will help liberate all of them. And, if America does not help them, they certainly will despair." A Message To American Statesmen A friend of mine brought this message from Slovakia: "Tell all American Slovaks to work tirelessly for a free Slovakia. Let them rest assured that we are praying for them. And we also pray that God might enlighten the �72 SLOVAKIA minds of your American statesmen so that they might not be naive and might not betray the nations behind the Iron Curtain, not even our Slovak nation, because we await our rescue and liberation from America, her President and Government. Indeed, there has been already enough suffering, misery, real and judicial murders. There is no greater punishment for us than this communist hell. The sooner America realizes this, the better for her." Need anything be added to the above? Americans of Slovak descent, joined together in the Slovak League of America, are expending every effort in this direction to liberate the Slovaks at home and secure for them the independence they have fought for so many hundreds of years. The adamant anti-communist stand of the League is well known. The Slovak League of America, an American institution, believes that it is in the highest interest of the security and welfare of the United States, that the Government of the United States fully recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to freedom and independence. Conclusion This then is the situation in Slovakia today. In reporting this I presented only some incidents and facts. In these our own United States of America, many people are not aware of what is happening behind the Iron Curtain. In my opinion, the things that are happening in Slovakia, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Rumania, in Yugoslavia and other communist controlled countries, indeed in Russia and China themselves, is not only a concern of these people and nations but also of every other country that does not wish to succumb to communism. America is no exception. Indeed America is and will be most responsible and reprehensible, I believe, in the eyes of world historians - and of the world in years to come - if communism spreads. Only America can prevent or limit its spread and contain and isolate it. I personally do not think that to isolate it is to solve the problem of communism; on the contrary, world communism has assumed such proportions that it cannot be isolated anymore. Communism overtook China. It is influencing other �SLOVAKIA 73 Asiatic people and it is penetrating into Africa. Some Americans rejoice that shaking hands with Khrushchev is solving the problem; but to do so is a stab in the back of those who suffer under communism. To solve it, America and the whole world must not run away with the form of government established for us by our American founders . Freedom is the right of our 181 million American people; but this is also the right of every people. The threats of Kremlin ought not make Americans wince and submit to the dictates of Khrushchev as to how a Paris conference must end or whether our president should or should not go to Tokyo. Because after such a dictate will encourage Khrushchev to continue further. The aim of communism even now in 1960 is the proletariat's world rule. Khrushchev said this summer, "I'd love to see the red banner flying over the whole world in my lifetime." • • • WHO SAID IT? The Czechs . . . . are inclined to be both socialistic in politics and agnostic in religion. The Slovaks on the other ·hand ... as conservative peasantry are for the most part loyal and pious Roman Catholics. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that friction developed between them." - (F. Lee Benm;: Europe Since 1914, New Y:ork, 193:11; p. 556). • • • "The population question is further complicated by the ant'agonism of the Czechs and Slovaks themselves. The Czechs, who outnumber the Slovaks almost two to one ... are more inclined toward political liberalism and religious scepticism .... The Slovaks are among the most pious and conservative of peasant folks . .." - (Walter C. Langsam: The World Since 1914, New York, 1953; p. 453). • • • "Some of the .radica,ls and the nationalists in parliament demanded an absolute sep·a ration of church and state, and in January 1920, as part of the so-called 'Away From Rome' movement, there was established a Czechoslovak National Church which proclaimed its independence of the papacy and abolished the requirement of celibacy for the clergy. This church, however, gained almost no Slovak adherents and fewer than a million Czech members." - (Walter C. Langsam : The World since 1914, New York, '1•953; p. 45'1). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 62 SLOVAKIA SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM By Joseph Pauco Some Americans of Slovak ancestory who visit Slovakia keep in touch with me and keep me up to date as to what is or has recently transpired in our ancestoral homeland. From this I can faithfully present the following report about oppressed Slovakia under Czech Communism. The Scarcity of News Everyone who receives mail from Slovakia complains of the scarcity of news. In fact very little news is ever mentioned in personal letters. The only news we get and learn from the writer of any letter is that he is still living or that such and such are alive or that so and so of the family is dead. No one writing to America dare mention anything detrimental or in opposition to the regime. Most of our information about what is transpiring in Slovakia comes from the visitors. Last year's visitors to Slovakia disclosed the fact that a Slovak there, sending mail out of the country, must personally present every letter unsealed at the postal window and identify himself - for obvious reasons. One of our friends brought this message from his kin: Tell our relatives in America that they should not expect any details in our letters - because we may only praise our present regime. Whilst visiting there my friend learned of the cruel fate that happened to a young man whose father surprised him with an automobile from America. As soon as the communist authorities heard that he received the automobile they laid him off. When he inquired as to the reason for this, he was told that he has a wealthy American father who brought him a car; therefore let the father provide a living for him! A communist customs official directed a Slovak American lady to inform every one in America "not to bring or send clothes from America. We need American dollars SLOVAKIA 63 with which to buy better things than those that you bring or send to us." Other visitor to Slovakia affirmed that: "The duty on new articles sent from the USA to Slovakia is several times higher than the value of the article. Hence the Slovak people there often beg and advise Americans not to send new clothing, shoes, etc." Communist Persecution of Slovak Peasants One of our countrymen who returned from Slovakia reports: "I was in Slovakia and I didn't recognize my own hometown. Much is changed. Since 1945 standards of living dropped and the people been living through nothing but woeful poverty, adversity and persecution. "Your Slovak-American press reports that everything is being communized," they told to my friend; "but you probably do not know that every farmer is resisting this as long as he possibly can. Not one wants to give up what he has; not one of them freely volunteers to be communized. "First the communist regime decreed that every farmer must turn over to the State a specific portion of the crop - so much grain, potatoes, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk and other produce. If the farmer was unable the government got after him and asked him 'Will you sign?' If he declined to sign, he was taken a few days later to the police headquarters. "At the headquarters he was always investigated and intimidated - about his field, about his family, his work, where and who his kin is, where each member of the family works, with what girl does his son keep company, where his relatives live. "Whether he has any relatives in the United States of America, whether they write and send packages or money to him; and other similar questions. After all these always comes the persistent question: 'Will you sign?' If he declines again, the policeman grab his arms, twist them, stick a pen into his fingers and force him to sign. Some of the farmers are held at the police seven-ten days, 64 SLOVAKIA and tortured two or three times a day - to get them to give up their farms. "Those who were more determined would hold out longer, but even they would eventually yield. Indeed all those, whom I saw and whom I talked, the average American might be tempted to consider stupid or mental for they certainly talk peculiarly scared and nervous like, obviously because of the terror and beatings to which they were subjected. "Hence, they finally resign themselves to the hopeless fate and role to which the State subjects them. They thus in practice become utter slaves of the State. In enforcing the commune upon them, the State would dismiss the farmer's son or daughter from office work under the pretext that peasant and his family is sabotaging the commune. "My sister complained bitterly about this miserable situation. Her husband was persecuted and terrorized, her son was kicked out of the factory, and our priest-uncle was spirited away to the concentration camp. And last summer the state police came and ransacked her house and recorded all that she had in it. Every little item they checked and recorded - clothing, furniture, all her goods, stationary, toiletries, rags. Nothing is private to the communists." Slovaks Are Fleeing Into the Mountains Another visitor to Slovakia records: "As regards recruiting into the commune, this is done both by propaganda and terrorizing. In my hometown this was done even whilst I was there. Sixty communists poured out of a bus every morning to intimidate the farmers who resisted giving up their fields to the State. "My cousin was detained last spring by the regional national committee for investigation. He was beaten and locked up in a dark basement for two days. "My brother-in-law, who is on pension and who refused to turn over his property to the communist regime. had his pension taken away for good. "At the time of my visit to my hometown it was like SLOVAKIA 65 doomsday. I wanted to visit with some of my friends with whom I used to chum around in my youth and who were still living, but they were afraid to talk to me. About twenty of the male friends fled before the police into the mountains. "Many of the other farmers of the country were likewise fleeing into the hills. "I am a rough coal miner. I never wept; but what I saw in my native town moved me to tears and I cried with many of the men there. They weep both out of just anger and out of bitter despair; for they are helpless and powerless to prevent their own plots of land from going to waste or to the communist regime. "I visited Slovakia when Khrushchev was preparing to visit America. Everyone who spoke of his visit, frowned on it, and prayed for the American leaders. "I'd love to visit again my native town in Slovakia; but not under communism, because my heart would break over the plight of my fellow countrymen." Whom Does Communism Permit to Attend the University Other Slovak American who visited Slovakia learned that: "I visited my native city - Kosice. My relatives have children whom they would like to send to the University. Out of five of them only one was able to send his son to a University. When I questioned them how such discrimination is possible, they answered: "'We are deeply worried when our children finish the required schooling. Besides, it is not easy to get permission to send one's child to a University; for 75 percent of the students must be of the so-called "proletariat families" - that is, of the already communized families. "'The growth of purely Slovak intelligentsia is thus restricted, indeed decreased.' "Another sad situation in Slovakia is this: "People live, so to speak, from hand to mouth. That is, they do not put away anything into the bank - either because they do not have anything to put in or because they do not trust communist banks or communist money. 66 SLOVAKIA "My cousin lives with her husband and children in a State home. It is a large home to house several families of workers - the privileged class which does not pay rent. The State leaves them in the apartments free of rent, because it does not wish to stir up scandal against those who are its privileged favorites. Hence, if these do not contribute to the support of the State, how can the State function - unless it discriminates against and takes from the majority of the Slovak populace? "It is obvious that the State does this deliberately both so that there would be no savings and so that all would live in State owned houses and apartments, where it is the easier for the State to check and control each family. Here and there, of course, a family will attempt to build its own home - but this is done under tremendous hardships. Nevertheless, though it is difficult to secure labor, unemployment is on the rise among the Slovak people - another reason why bitterness is increasing against communists." Slovak Youth lndoctrinat.ed and Educat.ed Against God The Communists in Slovakia concern themselves to turn Slovak youth against God and religion and to bring it up without religion is quite evident. Every visitor mentions this. We have first hand evidence of this policy even from the Communist daily "Praca"; for instance, under the date of December 6, 1959, under the heading "Circle of Young Atheists" we read: "In the schools of Slovakia Slovak youth is being organized and trained against God and the Church." The article mentions such an organized group or circle in a school on Dubova Street in Bratislava. The previous year the circle had 15 members; last year it had 73 members. Each circle, as then organized, the article claimed, was made up of eleventh graders. "What do these 'circles' do?" The article asks and answers this thus: "This year we read and discuss Lunacarsky's book 'Why It Is Impossible To Believe In God'" (Communists spell God with a small initial letter.) In Prague a so-called new "Broadcast University" SLOVAKIA 67 was founded. The Chicago Daily News carried this short news-item on one of this "university's" lectures: CZE,CH RADIO ANAIL YZES Bl·BLE Bonn, Germany, Jan. 9 (1960) - Lectures in Czecho-Slovakia's "Radio University" have been at some pains recently to analyze sections of the Bible. The Bible, these Communist speakers argued, contains a good deal of brutality and immorality. As one example they cited the killing of the priests of Baal. The program was in reply to a listener who had written to defend Christianity, and to argue that the world would be a better place if everyone followed Christian principles. Religion, the lecturers said, had not been able to eliminate wars or to prevent fascism. Most of the good in religious ideas, the lecturers added, was of non-religious origin. This then is the way Czech Communists indoctrinate and poison the minds of the young and the faithful. Communist Destruction of Slovak Churches A visiting countryman reports: "In my native village, a few days prior to my arrival, the communist authorities closed the church and with my own eyes I saw posted on it the communists' official sign: 'STATE PROPERTY.' "My kinsfolks disclosed to me that their pastor was forced to preach most cautiously. He was unable to preach what he wished or as his heart and conscience dictated to him. Upon learning of this the faithful would crowd evenings after work into the church for prolonged periods of prayer - without their shepherd. So the civil authorities closed the church. "The parishioners then began to meet to pray at the outdoor on the outskirts of the village; but this was not for long, for not many days later heavily armed militia swooped down upon them and dispersed them. Terrorized people cried and defended themselves bare-handed as best they could. "From precedent Slovak citizenry now knows that communist authorities will turn any church into a granary or theatre or some propaganda house - as the communists did elsewhere and in Russia. "Terrorized peasants everywhere told me that: "'Everyone who is in the employment of the State 68 SLOVAKIA teachers, police, soldiers and the like - must renounce their faith and church. Students attending the University must likewise do so. Anyone who refuses to conform, looses his rights, his place and position. "I spoke with my cousin-priest who was held in prison for a very long time and who is now forced to work in a factory, and he revealed nervously how the Church situation is there: 'Worse,' he told me fearfully, 'than you or your American press realizes and reports; for only he who lived through it all can correctly tell of it. For instance, no priest can be sure in the evening when he retires that in the morning when he gets up he will be able to enter his own church again. He may have been dragged out of bed at night and spirited away to prison.' "Others again will tell you that the most tragic thing is that the seminaries were all closed down; only the State directed one in Bratislava is allowed to be opened, and it permits only a ridiculously small token number of seminarians. "It is public knowledge that the professors in this seminary are favorably disposed to the communist regime ; and even though they should not be, the seven or eight seminarians that are annually ordained are entirely too few for the 4 million inhabitants of Slovakia. More priests die annually in one diocese than that. Old priests are rapidly dying off - as they must; and there are none, or proportionately very few, to replace them. Such a situation is disastrous to the Church. In a generation or two there will scarcily be enough priests in the country to supply a town let alone the whole country. In the course of a few years Slovakia will be progressively without priests and churches. And not only for this reason. The State is trying to bring up an irreligious and churchless population. Tremendous pressure, for instance, is exerted upon the youth, especially in the Universities, to have nothing to do with religion. Students are mostly drawn from trusty communist circles or families ; and if one or the other of these is noticed to cling more to the Sacred Scriptures than to Karl Marx, he is immediately expelled. Communism wants only a communist intelligentsia. In key positions this in- SLOVAKIA 69 telligentsia can control the world, the thoughts of men and have its own 'communist religion'." The Church Is the Greatest Opponent of Communism Though the press in Slovakia is completely controlled and carefully censored by the communists in order the more overtly and effectively to undermine religion and popularize communism, readers nevertheless can readily notice what and how this propaganda is doing and working against the Church and religion. No matter how careful the communist press is it cannot help but here and there expose and betray itself and its objectives. For example, the daily "PRACA" of November 3, 1959 treats of the "United Efforts of the Vatican." Among other things it writes: "Serfdom, feudalism and bourgeoisism - and bureaucracy - on the one side and the church on the other side needed each other in order to control the new, progressive and rapidly developing power of the revolutionary mass of serfs, non-farmers and workers, particularly after the laboring class proposed and obtained such a powerful ideological arsenal as is Marxism and such wonderful organizers as communism and its party are ... Religion and the Church remain practically the last and only ideological defenses and the only hope of the dying old world. . . Rapidly rising peaceful powers of the earth press the enemy to rely more and more on the ideological arsenal of religion and religion's organization. The defenders of darkness are seriously interested in the leadership of reli,gion. "The Vatican, as the supreme head and center of darkness and ideological warfare against progress, is preparing for total mobilization. For instance, the Vatican is preparing an ecumenical council, so that in the ensuing discussions with the 'separated brethren' the matter of political and ideological cooperation and mutual objectives against communism will be considered and achieved. "And if it should come to the union of Christians, this would be only so that the Vatican can the more successfully serve the disintegrating imperialistic colonial system and fight for the salvation of capitalism and strengthen the reactionary positions of the Church." 70 SLOVAKIA So the communist press alleges. This, however, is merely one instance of how the communistic press works. Those who accept such "revelations" of the communist press as a genuine contribution to the peace and concord of coexistence, must, in view of all this, be either deceived or stupid or mentally sick. The Chasm Between the Slovaks and Czechs I met another visitor from Slovakia and he expressed his impressions this way: "My brother works in an office there and he explained how things stand with him and what life is like in CzechoSlovakia. "'Everybody,' he said, 'is living in fear - scared; because in every office there sits a security agent, who records or notes for the police everything what he observes. "He is a common individual who works in the office like all of us; but he has this special personal assignment. Hence, wherever it is possible, Slovak officials, whether in the office or in the factory, sabotage the work. Sometimes Slovaks even go on strike; but Czechs have never gone on a strike. . "Czechs merely inquire of the Slovaks: 'What's happening in Slovakia?' - as if to say, they wish the Slovaks would begin a revolution in Slovakia. Then the Czech will sit back, observe and take credit for being a good and reliable citizens and deserving of better consideration, better positions and better treatment - in any kind of governmen, even foreign. "It's the same with listening to radio broadcasts. Most Slovaks listen to foreign broadcasts, watch Austrian TV programs, and the like. But not so the Czechs. They, allegedly, dislike Austrians and Germans. "Czechs would like the world to believe that Slovaks like to fraternalize with them (with Czechs); but this is untrue and absurd. S 1 o v a k s detest fraternalizing with Czechs - for obvious reasons. The true Slovak, because of the Czech persecution and exploitation of Slovakia and because of the common tendency amongst the Czechs to toy around sympathetically with communism and irreli- SLOVAKIA 71 gion, is very wary of the Czech. If there was any fraternalizing between the Czech and Slovak before the First World War, there is none since the Czech attempt to Czechjze Slovakia after the formation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovaks are convinced that it is impossible to coexist let alone live with the Czechs in one State. "I experienced this myself in Praha. Czech youth wholly does not comprehend the Slovak or the Slovak attitude. Prague youths, when I addressed them, persistently asked me, 'What are you, a Polak?' And my brother, who lives in Slovakia, would try to comfort me and say: 'Don't be amazed at this. They do not care to understand the Slovak tongue, muchless the Slovak and his democratic views. They behold him with disdain and contempt.' "Let me mention what I learned of what happened in 1956 when the Hungarians revolted. The Slovak people were hoping for a general war to break out, with America rushing to aid free Hungary, but nothing like this happened. "The Czechs, instead, sent a whole armed division against the revolting Hungarians. By chance I met in New York City a Hungarian who fought in that revolt and he told me that the revolting Hungarians got aid only from two places - from Spain and from Slovakia. The Slovaks somehow or another spirited away to them 500 loaded machine guns, a great quantity of hand grenades and ammuniti9n and a lot of bandages, and the Spaniards sent over a planeload of bazookas." I asked my Slovak informant how the Slovaks in Slovakia viewed the liquidation of the Hungarian revolt and he answered me : "They were tremendously disappointed - and they are so even at present. Nevertheless they still hope that America will help liberate all of them. And, if America does not help them, they certainly will despair." A Message To American Statesmen A friend of mine brought this message from Slovakia: "Tell all American Slovaks to work tirelessly for a free Slovakia. Let them rest assured that we are praying for them. And we also pray that God might enlighten the 72 SLOVAKIA minds of your American statesmen so that they might not be naive and might not betray the nations behind the Iron Curtain, not even our Slovak nation, because we await our rescue and liberation from America, her President and Government. Indeed, there has been already enough suffering, misery, real and judicial murders. There is no greater punishment for us than this communist hell. The sooner America realizes this, the better for her." Need anything be added to the above? Americans of Slovak descent, joined together in the Slovak League of America, are expending every effort in this direction to liberate the Slovaks at home and secure for them the independence they have fought for so many hundreds of years. The adamant anti-communist stand of the League is well known. The Slovak League of America, an American institution, believes that it is in the highest interest of the security and welfare of the United States, that the Government of the United States fully recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to freedom and independence. Conclusion This then is the situation in Slovakia today. In reporting this I presented only some incidents and facts. In these our own United States of America, many people are not aware of what is happening behind the Iron Curtain. In my opinion, the things that are happening in Slovakia, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Rumania, in Yugoslavia and other communist controlled countries, indeed in Russia and China themselves, is not only a concern of these people and nations but also of every other country that does not wish to succumb to communism. America is no exception. Indeed America is and will be most responsible and reprehensible, I believe, in the eyes of world historians - and of the world in years to come - if communism spreads. Only America can prevent or limit its spread and contain and isolate it. I personally do not think that to isolate it is to solve the problem of communism; on the contrary, world communism has assumed such proportions that it cannot be isolated anymore. Communism overtook China. It is influencing other SLOVAKIA 73 Asiatic people and it is penetrating into Africa. Some Americans rejoice that shaking hands with Khrushchev is solving the problem; but to do so is a stab in the back of those who suffer under communism. To solve it, America and the whole world must not run away with the form of government established for us by our American founders . Freedom is the right of our 181 million American people; but this is also the right of every people. The threats of Kremlin ought not make Americans wince and submit to the dictates of Khrushchev as to how a Paris conference must end or whether our president should or should not go to Tokyo. Because after such a dictate will encourage Khrushchev to continue further. The aim of communism even now in 1960 is the proletariat's world rule. Khrushchev said this summer, "I'd love to see the red banner flying over the whole world in my lifetime." • • • WHO SAID IT? The Czechs . . . . are inclined to be both socialistic in politics and agnostic in religion. The Slovaks on the other ·hand ... as conservative peasantry are for the most part loyal and pious Roman Catholics. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that friction developed between them." - (F. Lee Benm;: Europe Since 1914, New Y:ork, 193:11; p. 556). • • • "The population question is further complicated by the ant'agonism of the Czechs and Slovaks themselves. The Czechs, who outnumber the Slovaks almost two to one ... are more inclined toward political liberalism and religious scepticism .... The Slovaks are among the most pious and conservative of peasant folks . .." - (Walter C. Langsam: The World Since 1914, New York, 1953; p. 453). • • • "Some of the .radica,ls and the nationalists in parliament demanded an absolute sep·a ration of church and state, and in January 1920, as part of the so-called 'Away From Rome' movement, there was established a Czechoslovak National Church which proclaimed its independence of the papacy and abolished the requirement of celibacy for the clergy. This church, however, gained almost no Slovak adherents and fewer than a million Czech members." - (Walter C. Langsam : The World since 1914, New York, '1•953; p. 45'1).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovakia Under Communism Description An account of the resource Joseph Paučo Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 62-73 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/473ad706ff2c43f97ebdfdc2a5ad6f19.pdf fa659454b30cf0e3b1fabeb9f7d22b50 PDF Text Text 74 SLOVAKIA NEW BOOKS Gilbe rt L. Oddo: Slova kia and by the ,p roper and wide circulation Its People, Robert Speller and <Yf this book. Sons, New York, 1960; 362 pp., $6.00. This scholarly work is a most fitting tri!bute to the pla<ce and stature of Francis Hrufovsky in the annals of Slovakian histoi,y. Offered in memory of that distinguished Slov-ak historian, it serves as the first systemati:c history Olf the S:lovak nation in the English language. The privilege that Professor Gilbert L. Oddo enjoys in this respect is more than justilfied by the sterling at triibutes of his product. By careful research,, detailed documentat-i<on and balanced interpretation he has filled a gap in knowledlge and underst-anding that has existed for too long in the English-speaking countries. U!ns tfil now has ,b een a serious gap which no amount Olf pamphlets, papers and other transient media could adequately narrow. An important, authoritative source on the Slovak nat•ion has haippily emerged in, an important and leadin1g language of the world. While today many eyes are centered on Catholic countries like Olllba and others, wondering how and by what means a communist takeover might be achieived, tomorrow, as a result of works of this kind, they wti.11 become more and more focused on a predominantly Catholic counti,y behind the Iron Curtain which by no means has recei'Ved is fair due in world attention, evaluation and signi!ficance. Purposely distorted propaganda has clouded Western, and particUJlarly American, unldierstandi.ng r,f reality and aspirations r,f over four million people making urp the Slovak nat ion. Much of this politically contrived propaganda will undoulbtedly be dissi,pated It is truly amazinig the extent to which our thinkiing albout other people and nations is seriously discolored by myths and failse• hoods that ha.ve g-a,i ned currency through calculated effort on the part of the politiically ambitious few and, more so, through habitual usage and mental inertia. In these times it is even iroruical to hear many Olf our pwblic and private leaders urge in one breath that lfor our long-term security interests it is utterly indispensaible for us to understand other peoples and nations and then, in, the very ne~t breath, deny the distinctive nattiional existence of a given people by parroting unfounded and mis leading nomer·s and cliches. This writer has witnessed many trying, in efifect, to squMe a ciTcle by speaking, on the one hand, ()ff the glorious fight of Slovak patriots for nation.al independence and th en, on the other hand, reiterating the myth of a "Czechoslovak nation." Fortun,ately, in most instances this self-<!ontl'adiction is the con'sequence of an in~irm grasp of basiic essentials albout Slovaikia for which now there can be no excuse. lli. Oddo clearly and vividly provides t,h ese essentials in this hi-ghil.y readaible and accessible work. Despite the open record of nat ional Slovak resistance again•st communiist domination, the story of Slov.akia is a story Olf a nation's fight for fu'eedom and survival goes back well beyond the conteimpor,ary period. In a real sense, the present subjugation otf this undyin·g nation is only another chapter in, its long and evenbful history. Its cumulative experience in alternating periods of 1 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 75 independence and capt-i<vity pre- tianirty, social justi'Ce, literature, pares and equips its people welll cuJture, and the freedom of Slofor the tasks and chaU,enges olf vak!ia. The role of Trnava Univerthe present struggle. As one readls sity, the Slovak role i 1n, the evoluwbout rthe many historic occaS:i.on-s tion of the Czechs, Slovak if.fieedom forming the distinctive history of and the 1848 Revolution, the St. this European nation, he cannot Martin Memorandum of '1001~ .the but feel doubly assured that here ::zech-0..Slovak Pact of May 30, 119118 erists one of the truest and most and many other events are events reliwble allies of the cause of that bespeak the vitality, growth, world freedom. This volume cov- ,persevernnK!e, and determinatio niof ers these occasions wrth moving •a strategica1liy situated nation. All an<l d~scr,iiptive force, an<l the in- 1 this and more spells out a vtbrant dis,pensalble persp~tri.ve gained by tradition whiich is the .living soul Olf the reader is insurance enough Slovakia, a permanent reaHrty that against the repetition of basic no amount ofmyt,h-mraking political errors concerning rthe right and propaganda can possilbly erase or property of an independent Slo- for .long conceal. With descriptive vak nation in the world fami1ly oil' 1 vividness· and factual proportion, IProfessor Ododo succeeds in tbringnations. .Asi<le from it.s naturcm. rJgoht of ing out this truth in all its luselif-deterunination - which really minous aspects. The pattern of events and tragic doesn't have rto •b e reasserted time and time again to es!Jalblish the development thwt characterizes the distinctive character and the sepa- long history of the Slovak nation rate national will of rthe Slorva!k is rem'barkalbly similar to that of people - the full creden,t ials of many other nations naw held in the Slovak nation for sovereignty captiv~ty in the Russian Coonmuanid independence are found in its nist Empini Ukraine, White RusliVt.ing history F1rom the earliest sia, Georgoia, Turkestan and other backgrounds to the pr,e sent, the subjugated nations in Eastern Eumovement of Slovakian existence rope and Central Asia have on difhas been toward e,opanded free- ferent stages of the historical dom or t-oward freedom itsellf. ! drama and at different times enFrom the ninth century, when the Icountered - indeed, still do share first Slovak ruler, Prince Prilbina, 1 - si:milar problems. Problems o!f reigned, to our century, when on identity and rightful. recogniti1on, Ma-rch '14, 1939, a new independ- ! of nationial survival and historical ent Slovakia emerged and was re- I truth, are problems foisted upon cognized by twenty-seven coun- I the Slovak nation by alien influI tries, this saga ·o f a people's iixed ences and powers as they are by dletermina1iion to be free and re- I simi1ar forces in these other areas. spocted a·s an equal among nations ! The nature and character of these abounds with heroes, events and j problems, whether arisin,g from achievements that would glorilfy / •b lind Western iniaipplicatfon of the the history of any nation, large . ,pri-nciple of national self-determin / ation, misinrter;pre,t,at.ion of the or small. The names of SS. Cyiril and Me- / Czecho-6lovak Pact, the Hitlerian thodius, Janosik, Anthony Beroo- 1episode arul the dtelimmas it posed laJc, Hlinka, Stefanik, Hurlban-V•a- to maniy peoples in Central and jansky, Dr. Joseph Tiso and numer- Easter.Ill Europe, are treated with ous other,s are historic names as- scholarly consideration and balsoci-aited with the advance o! Chni.s- ance in this work. They cannot be I �76 SLOVAKIA handled otherwise, for the strug-1 Slo,v ak culture, literature and the language of the oldest people gle of a people is involved. This struggle is today an in- in the Danube region, as well as tegral and important part of man- the democratic traditions of the krnd's struggle for freedom . The Slovak nation, are presented in so,mer many Amer,i cans realize an intiemgilble way. Moreover, the this, the better wm our position complex events that created and be in relation to all the eruptive shaped Czecho-Slovakia an'<i then. nations in the Russian Communi9t led to the declaration of Slovak Empire. The history of the free- 1 independence on March 14, 1939 dom-loving Slovak nation, as so (six months before the outbreak competently portrayed here, is a of the war, are so arranged sufficient guideline for our think- and exiplained as to give the ing, our policies, our actions and , reader a factual and mastierful survey of a hectic period in momost of all, for our conscience. dern history. Lev E. Dobriansky, Arrnerican Slovaks are credited Georgetown University. with the idea of Slovak independJoseph M. Kirschbaum: Slo- ence in the very frrst chaipter. vakia - Nation at the Cross- This trilbute is based upon the fact roads of Central Europe, Ro- that all during the present cenibel"'t Slpeller and Sons, Ne<w tury the Slova1ks here, inspired by York, 1960; 385 pp,, $5.00. the spir,it of American freedom, This latest work by the distin- have spared no effort to help their guished professor of Slavic Stu- fellow countrymen estalblish a free dies at the University of Montreal and self-governing state of their is a well balanced, coordinated and own. To this end they attempted weIJ.,calculated effort to give a forward step towards self-govthinking people a true picture of Iemment with the Czechs to be the Slovak nation struggling for equal partners in- the formation national freedom and survival since I of the first Republic of Czechothe dawn of western civilization. i Slovakra. (Cfr. the Cleveland In his introduction, Kirschbaum I Agreement of 1915 and the Pittsgives the reader a genuine histo- i burgh Pact of 19118). When the latrical prospective of the land and ter agreement with the Czech repits people in a few pages. In a ' resentatives (including Thomas G. concise sweep of centuries of -hi- Masal"'yk) was repudiated after the of the republic, story, the author traces the fate- establishment ful course of -this small but dy- the Slovaks, rea.Jizing they were namic nation from the sixth cen- denied the right to selrf-governI ment in, their home country, retury to the present. ever before has a reader of newed the struggle, and the moveSlovak histori'Cal development had ment towards a free state of their the opportunity to learn so quickly , own was accelerated by both the the real story of a countl"'y whose irresistible force of freedom and destiny has been and still is close- the sweep of external events, rely associated with the life of its , suiting in the declara1Uon of Sloneighbors, namely, Czechs,, Aits- vak ind'ependen'Ce on, Miarch 14, trians, Germans, Poles, Russians, 11939. and Magyars, for here, in a com- , The book is enhanced by more pact vollllffie, the author has com- than a score of pictures that iipressed centuries of history as it ' lustrate highlights in the history occurred in the heart of Eurnpe of the Slovak nation. A suitable ! �77 SLOVAKIA bibliography of s·o me sixty sources indicates the thorough scho1'arship that produced it. Documents and letters relati'Ilg to the struggle of the Slo;vaiks for their right t'O self-governmeITTit and a free stathood are quoited as far back as April 13, '11849, when a group of Slovak deputies submitted a petition to the Ministry in Vienna for national recognition. These, a total of 712, are up to 1005. Thus, not only is this book designated fur popular :reading but also for serious study by students of hi'story. It will serve to provide them with a basic historical knowledge of the S1ovak nation, and wi11 g~ve them a reliaible insight in'to the incredibly fascinating story of Slovakia on the Danube. Andrew Pie.r, O.S.B., Director, Slovak Jn.stirtute, Cleveland, 0. 1 Jozef Pauco: Unconquerables. Vanitage P,ress, N. Y., Washington, Chi~caglo, Holly,wood. 225 pp., $3.50. In this a•ge of the exiled, the tempest-rossed and the oppressed, many have been the men and women of diverse political, religious and ied'ologicall persuasi·ons whose fate has been sung and whose cause won through global sympathy and recognition,. No less dramatic but perhaps less sung and stiU not won is the cause of the Slovak heroes, the unconqueraibles behind, the iron curtain, souls who could not and would not leave, cornvinced that their mission, is to remain, to oppose the foe and defend the id•e als that externally have succumbed but in their hearr ts burn on. Ph.D. Jlozef Paufo, son of S!lov,akia, whose road has led him from the Slovaik University into the world of journalism via Austria and West Germany, New York, and now Pennsylvancita, has recor- ded true stories of Silova,k heroism as personified in the "Whtie Legionnaires." Slova~ia, whose fight against Czech chauvfoism was as little appreciated as that of the Sudeten Germans a,g;afo,s t Czech encroachment, has a tale of its own to tell in the 20th cen•tury battle aga,i nst satanic Coonmuni sm. Those familiar with the Slo,vak people know that no wedge has been or can be driven between them and their clergy. The Slovaks are devout, loyal Catholics almost ro a man. Any stor,y olf their bravery against Bolshevism is at the same tJime a document o.f the valor olf their priests, nuns, and o,ther religious who to this very h1our are traveling a path to Calvary that only a glowing faith i-n the Crucified could make possible. The pages of Pauco's "Unrcon• queraib!tes" offer the reader no paipier-mache dons but filesh and blood men and women like Sister Katarina, enduring personal insuit and humi!Jiation, foreed to witness the desecra'tion of what she ho1ds most sacred; like teacher Stach, dediicated to saving Slovak youth from the acids of Bolshevist ideology by fonning secret schools to lecture on religi•on, ins<tihl Slovak ideals in young folk and keep good literature alive. We read of the diabolical chticanery iruvented to prevent the people oi a Slovak village from going on a pilgrimage and we see that simple faith undaunted even in the face o,f outright deceit and force . We see the enemy systematically trying to wproot Christian prindples from the school's and Slovak way of life and see the Legionna,i res fig;hting hack. Simple s'traightforwaror books like Pauco's should be placed on required reading lists for schools I �SLOVAKIA 78 and in public li!braries all over I L. Niederle, e<tc.) and try to shed the coullltry. Irts message goes right a new light on this, period of Slavic history and civilization. And to the heart. while we may disagree with their Frances McPoyne. "marxist" methods, it will be difStephen Smriik, S.J.,: The .flicult to deny the conclusfons Glagolitic or Romano-S'lavonic reached whi<ch are supported by Liturgy, Series Cyrill()'Illethodi- research in archeofogy and p,hiana, Slovak Institute, Cleve- lology. a'and, Rome, 195'9, 1120 pp., ilThe author of The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy wrote his lustraited; $2.50. The approachiing 1100th anni- I book on .this side of the Iron Curversary of the arrival of SS. Cyril , tain, in Rome, where und,oUlbtedly and Metiliodfos to Great Moravia, j many original sources, until now inspir-ed several Slovak Slavists to only partly or not at all used, publish a series of s,cholM"lY stu- ,I were at his disposal. Thi'S g,ives to dies in English called Cyrilome- his study on the introductii.on of thodiana. The first volume was the ancierut Slovak (Slovanic) Ianprepared by a Sloivak exipert in guage into the Christian, •l iturgy a medieval arts, Prolfessor J. G. Cin- value of original reaserch and cik. Allthougih its tiitle reads An- makes his book a contribution to glo-Saxon and Slovak-Avar Pat• the Slavis<tJics. Recognition of the terns of the Cuthbert Gospel, it re- Slovaniic language by ROlllle as one fers in its conclusions to the mis- of the liturgi.cal languages, at a sion of SS. Cyril and Meithodius. time when Slavs were lbut barba(See a rev-itew on, this in Slavic and rians, was an epoch-making eivent East European Studies, Vol. IIII, which laid the foundation for a F. 4, p. 240). The second volume I new Slav,i,c civilization that spread is the well,balanced and carefully ! from Great Moraivia and later d~ veloped among Southern and Eastedited study by Rev. Stephen zik, S.J., a learned Sllovak Jesuit, ern Slavs. The corutinuous interest study-Jng and teaching in Italy. 1 of Slavis'ts in this epooh is conGreat Moravia and the civiliza- ! sequently understandalble. tion which started in the t erri- 1 Father Sanrzik r,e-examined in tory of today's Sl 01Vakia, Moraivia, \ his scholarly treatise the views and Southern Poland, a,nd Slo-v enia I theories of several Slavi•s ts on• the (the comp'o nen:t parts of Greater IRoman-Slovanic liturgy, called also Moravia) with the missi'On of SS. the Glagolitic liturgy. In order to Cyril and Methodius, became in ! arrive at objective conclusions, the the past decades a favorite field of j author analyzed the theories which study and research of many S.la- j assert that the Roman Siova'lllic livis1ts of Polish, Slovak, Sloveni'an, I turgy was in't roduced already by Crech, and Hungartan origin. 1 the Slovak a,postles, CY["il and Scores of books have been, pulb- 1 Methodius, as well as the theories lis_hed b~hind the Iron Cm,tain on j whi~h assert that they _had no conthis subJect namely by Slovak and I nect110n whatsoever with the RoCzech archeologists and linguists mano.Slovanic liturgy. Writing his (Poul-&, Eisner, Tocik, Stanislav, : bO'ok in Rome, the author had an Isacenko, Dek>an, Pauliny, etc.) who : excellent opportunity for peru&ing challenge the vtiews and theories I all the principal works on the subof previous researche:rs (F. Dvor- ject. As a result, he gives us the nik, J . Skultety, P. Hrusovsky, V. views of Cherubi,n, Segivic, who exJagic, J. Dobrovsky, J. P. Safarik, pounded his theory on the origin Smr- 1 1 �SLOVAKIA on the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturrgy lin several puiblica'tions, denying the Cyrilo-Methodian origJn of the Roman-Slovanic liturgy, as weU as thie 1heories· of Orthodox authors Gorazd Pa,vlik and Jif.i Novak, on the one ha-nd, and recent pro-Cyrilomethodiian theories oif Ivan Bercic, F. Pasternak, S. Rittig, Anton Brtikner, and C. Mohlberg, on the otherr hand. The author g.ives a clear evaluation and a crlitique of all theories and presents a syn'thesis of the evolution and preserut status of the liturgy which, according to him, is western in its ceremonies and eastern in its· language. For Fiather Smrzik there is no douibt that the Roman-Slov~nic liturgy was introduced lby the Slovak apostles Cyril and Methodius in Gre-a t Moravia. Sinre he arri>ved at this coniclusion on the basis of a thorough study of so many eminent Slavists, whose works were predominenltly published in Slavic languages, his book is und'OUlbtedly a valualble contribution to the elucidation of the sulbject. The boolk also contains a chapter on history of the Roman-6110vanic liturgy which makes it an the more v,aluable for readers who are not acqua,i nted with the s·ubject. However, this chap'ter should have come, in this reviewer's opinion, -as Ohapter I. Chapter II, w,hich deals with t,h e oldest written record,s of the Rom,an-Siovanic liturgy, completes eff~ct-ively the picture of the origin and development of the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturgy. Scholars in Slaivic subje'cts will appreciate also the author's bilbliograiphy, but n1dt including an index is one of the shortcomings of this excellent and well-eddted stud!Y which is enr-ichied by several repro<lucti'Ons and illustrations. I 79 J. M. Kirschbaum: Contempo• rary Tendencies in Slovak Phi• lology, an offprint from the periodical SI:avk and East European Studies, Vol. IV, No. 3-4, Department Olf Slavic Stud:ies, University Olf Montreal; 114 pp. Though Professor Kirschlbaum's concise study is primair.iJy destinoo for scholars and teachers, it gives, neventheiess, a clear picture of Slovaik endeavors in the field of philology to all who -are interested in the Slovak languag,e and in its relation to other Slavic languages. Man!Y American and Canadian readers• will be sur,pci-sed to Jearn that the relation between the Czech and the Slovaik language is not onJy a relaitdon between two distinct Slavic languages, but ,t hat Czech poetry and prose are now tl"anslated !into rbhe Slovak and vice versa as the Polish or Russian have always been. There was much confusion albowt this relation even in academic circles. ,T he value of Kirschlbaum's ·new study !lies in its cleair elucida.bon of the sulbject and of the reasons which, for so many years w.ere res,ponsilble for the existing con/fusion. ,Divid-ed into three chapters, the s,tu,dy presents a short, ,b ut scholarly perusal of contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology which is sUJbject to Russian pressure in the same way as the whole Slovak cultural lilfe has been from [945. While the author of the s,tudy admits that Slovaik philology develops comparaitiv,e ly undisitUT1bed by the incluSlion of Slovaik:ia within the Soviet cultural and political s,p he,r e of influence, he points to the attempts o;f some young philologists to impose "iMarxlis,t" or "StaJin'·s" dir:ectives upon the J. M. Kirschbaum, aeti<vities o~ Slovak philologists. University of Montreal. An anialysis of two volumes olf 1 �SLOVAKIA 80 "Bilbl'iography of Slovak PhHolo gy" tional origin of these men, but Cfor the y,e ars 1'93•9,,119417 and 1'!)!4& especially the position and role 195'2) makes Kiirschlbaum's study of Sttir in forming m<Ydern literacy pa.r ticularly valuable, as it shows Slovak, in unifying the Slovak nahow th e indi,v idual £ields of Slo- tion, and ,l eading the Slov,aks in vak phi,1,ology de,v eloped during their fight for national survival the past 20 years. The fact, that and independence. The author c. i the study is based on a thorough ;•this 1booklet did not enumerate all resea11ch into original S1'ovalk ,t he availaibLe bilbliography, but works giv,es to this first English brought out the lit,e ratur,e based treatise of S1-0'Vak philology an •o n oriiginal manuscripts, which unadded va,Iue. fortuiniaitely are still little known A. 'D. . among the Sla,vists on ,this con1 . , , • , tinent, and a score of works in J. M. ~•rschbam: L'.udovit S t ~r several foreign 1'anguages. and His Pl~c! In the Slavic · Four condensed chapters which '-'."oiild, Sla,vistma No. 32, _if>uib- 1make up this booklet cannot exL1s_he~ by the Slovak In st itute, I haust the per,sonaliity of Iludlorvit Wmn11peg...JC1'erveland, 1 9 5 8; Stur as a philosopher of Prun.SlavG-4 PP' ism, as a linguist and philologist, il.ittle has !been written in Eng- ' as an aesthete and poet, and as a lish rubout Stur's ideas of Pan- ' Slovak naition1a,l leader. lt is our Slavism and about his •i deas con- hope that J. M. Kirschlbaum will cerning the stmgg,l e for indei)end- 1,e ventua•Lly enlarge this valuable ence of ,t he Slo;vaik nation, and study into a 11esource!ful book fulonoe he -exhausted all peac,efuil ly and thoroughly evaluating the ,parlJ.amentary and .political means, ; ~igan,ti,c personality of Iludovit his role ,in the Iieibellion against Stur. Magyar oppression in 11848. The John Rekem, Slovak natio•n, dly.ing a slow death ' Winniipeg. under Miagyar oppression, was 1 greatly l!eartened and strength- 1 AT LAST ened by Stur's new unifying liverary language and culitu~al pro- 'A HISTORY OF SLOVAK.IA grams •took on a new life. This I in En lish fina,lly led to Slovak independence : g in 193e. I SUPPLY IS LIMITED Even eminent scholars o.f Slavisti:cs did not look into the per- I Get your copy NOW. sonality of Iludovit Stur. Lack of 1 ,access to, the oriiginal works of i Cloth cover, 382 pages Stur led some Slavists t o accept I th•e judgment of ma,ny politica,Uy i $6.00 pr,ejuditced Czech authors. Some went so far as to laibel Stur with J. Kollar and Saifarik as Czechs 1 although they were SlovaJks. Stur's : by Gilbert L. Oddo greaitest achievement wa:s the codification of the new Slo:vak Ii- ' terary language. JEDNOTA PRINTERY Credit is due to Kirschbaum's P. 0. Bo,x 150 present booklet inasmuch as it Middletown, Pa. helps to clarify not only the na1 1 ============== 1 1 Slovakia And Its People � 74 SLOVAKIA NEW BOOKS Gilbe rt L. Oddo: Slova kia and by the ,p roper and wide circulation Its People, Robert Speller and <Yf this book. Sons, New York, 1960; 362 pp., $6.00. This scholarly work is a most fitting tri!bute to the pla<ce and stature of Francis Hrufovsky in the annals of Slovakian histoi,y. Offered in memory of that distinguished Slov-ak historian, it serves as the first systemati:c history Olf the S:lovak nation in the English language. The privilege that Professor Gilbert L. Oddo enjoys in this respect is more than justilfied by the sterling at triibutes of his product. By careful research,, detailed documentat-i<on and balanced interpretation he has filled a gap in knowledlge and underst-anding that has existed for too long in the English-speaking countries. U!ns tfil now has ,b een a serious gap which no amount Olf pamphlets, papers and other transient media could adequately narrow. An important, authoritative source on the Slovak nat•ion has haippily emerged in, an important and leadin1g language of the world. While today many eyes are centered on Catholic countries like Olllba and others, wondering how and by what means a communist takeover might be achieived, tomorrow, as a result of works of this kind, they wti.11 become more and more focused on a predominantly Catholic counti,y behind the Iron Curtain which by no means has recei'Ved is fair due in world attention, evaluation and signi!ficance. Purposely distorted propaganda has clouded Western, and particUJlarly American, unldierstandi.ng r,f reality and aspirations r,f over four million people making urp the Slovak nat ion. Much of this politically contrived propaganda will undoulbtedly be dissi,pated It is truly amazinig the extent to which our thinkiing albout other people and nations is seriously discolored by myths and failse• hoods that ha.ve g-a,i ned currency through calculated effort on the part of the politiically ambitious few and, more so, through habitual usage and mental inertia. In these times it is even iroruical to hear many Olf our pwblic and private leaders urge in one breath that lfor our long-term security interests it is utterly indispensaible for us to understand other peoples and nations and then, in, the very ne~t breath, deny the distinctive nattiional existence of a given people by parroting unfounded and mis leading nomer·s and cliches. This writer has witnessed many trying, in efifect, to squMe a ciTcle by speaking, on the one hand, ()ff the glorious fight of Slovak patriots for nation.al independence and th en, on the other hand, reiterating the myth of a "Czechoslovak nation." Fortun,ately, in most instances this self-<!ontl'adiction is the con'sequence of an in~irm grasp of basiic essentials albout Slovaikia for which now there can be no excuse. lli. Oddo clearly and vividly provides t,h ese essentials in this hi-ghil.y readaible and accessible work. Despite the open record of nat ional Slovak resistance again•st communiist domination, the story of Slov.akia is a story Olf a nation's fight for fu'eedom and survival goes back well beyond the conteimpor,ary period. In a real sense, the present subjugation otf this undyin·g nation is only another chapter in, its long and evenbful history. Its cumulative experience in alternating periods of 1 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 75 independence and capt-i<vity pre- tianirty, social justi'Ce, literature, pares and equips its people welll cuJture, and the freedom of Slofor the tasks and chaU,enges olf vak!ia. The role of Trnava Univerthe present struggle. As one readls sity, the Slovak role i 1n, the evoluwbout rthe many historic occaS:i.on-s tion of the Czechs, Slovak if.fieedom forming the distinctive history of and the 1848 Revolution, the St. this European nation, he cannot Martin Memorandum of '1001~ .the but feel doubly assured that here ::zech-0..Slovak Pact of May 30, 119118 erists one of the truest and most and many other events are events reliwble allies of the cause of that bespeak the vitality, growth, world freedom. This volume cov- ,persevernnK!e, and determinatio niof ers these occasions wrth moving •a strategica1liy situated nation. All an<l d~scr,iiptive force, an<l the in- 1 this and more spells out a vtbrant dis,pensalble persp~tri.ve gained by tradition whiich is the .living soul Olf the reader is insurance enough Slovakia, a permanent reaHrty that against the repetition of basic no amount ofmyt,h-mraking political errors concerning rthe right and propaganda can possilbly erase or property of an independent Slo- for .long conceal. With descriptive vak nation in the world fami1ly oil' 1 vividness· and factual proportion, IProfessor Ododo succeeds in tbringnations. .Asi<le from it.s naturcm. rJgoht of ing out this truth in all its luselif-deterunination - which really minous aspects. The pattern of events and tragic doesn't have rto •b e reasserted time and time again to es!Jalblish the development thwt characterizes the distinctive character and the sepa- long history of the Slovak nation rate national will of rthe Slorva!k is rem'barkalbly similar to that of people - the full creden,t ials of many other nations naw held in the Slovak nation for sovereignty captiv~ty in the Russian Coonmuanid independence are found in its nist Empini Ukraine, White RusliVt.ing history F1rom the earliest sia, Georgoia, Turkestan and other backgrounds to the pr,e sent, the subjugated nations in Eastern Eumovement of Slovakian existence rope and Central Asia have on difhas been toward e,opanded free- ferent stages of the historical dom or t-oward freedom itsellf. ! drama and at different times enFrom the ninth century, when the Icountered - indeed, still do share first Slovak ruler, Prince Prilbina, 1 - si:milar problems. Problems o!f reigned, to our century, when on identity and rightful. recogniti1on, Ma-rch '14, 1939, a new independ- ! of nationial survival and historical ent Slovakia emerged and was re- I truth, are problems foisted upon cognized by twenty-seven coun- I the Slovak nation by alien influI tries, this saga ·o f a people's iixed ences and powers as they are by dletermina1iion to be free and re- I simi1ar forces in these other areas. spocted a·s an equal among nations ! The nature and character of these abounds with heroes, events and j problems, whether arisin,g from achievements that would glorilfy / •b lind Western iniaipplicatfon of the the history of any nation, large . ,pri-nciple of national self-determin / ation, misinrter;pre,t,at.ion of the or small. The names of SS. Cyiril and Me- / Czecho-6lovak Pact, the Hitlerian thodius, Janosik, Anthony Beroo- 1episode arul the dtelimmas it posed laJc, Hlinka, Stefanik, Hurlban-V•a- to maniy peoples in Central and jansky, Dr. Joseph Tiso and numer- Easter.Ill Europe, are treated with ous other,s are historic names as- scholarly consideration and balsoci-aited with the advance o! Chni.s- ance in this work. They cannot be I �76 SLOVAKIA handled otherwise, for the strug-1 Slo,v ak culture, literature and the language of the oldest people gle of a people is involved. This struggle is today an in- in the Danube region, as well as tegral and important part of man- the democratic traditions of the krnd's struggle for freedom . The Slovak nation, are presented in so,mer many Amer,i cans realize an intiemgilble way. Moreover, the this, the better wm our position complex events that created and be in relation to all the eruptive shaped Czecho-Slovakia an'<i then. nations in the Russian Communi9t led to the declaration of Slovak Empire. The history of the free- 1 independence on March 14, 1939 dom-loving Slovak nation, as so (six months before the outbreak competently portrayed here, is a of the war, are so arranged sufficient guideline for our think- and exiplained as to give the ing, our policies, our actions and , reader a factual and mastierful survey of a hectic period in momost of all, for our conscience. dern history. Lev E. Dobriansky, Arrnerican Slovaks are credited Georgetown University. with the idea of Slovak independJoseph M. Kirschbaum: Slo- ence in the very frrst chaipter. vakia - Nation at the Cross- This trilbute is based upon the fact roads of Central Europe, Ro- that all during the present cenibel"'t Slpeller and Sons, Ne<w tury the Slova1ks here, inspired by York, 1960; 385 pp,, $5.00. the spir,it of American freedom, This latest work by the distin- have spared no effort to help their guished professor of Slavic Stu- fellow countrymen estalblish a free dies at the University of Montreal and self-governing state of their is a well balanced, coordinated and own. To this end they attempted weIJ.,calculated effort to give a forward step towards self-govthinking people a true picture of Iemment with the Czechs to be the Slovak nation struggling for equal partners in- the formation national freedom and survival since I of the first Republic of Czechothe dawn of western civilization. i Slovakra. (Cfr. the Cleveland In his introduction, Kirschbaum I Agreement of 1915 and the Pittsgives the reader a genuine histo- i burgh Pact of 19118). When the latrical prospective of the land and ter agreement with the Czech repits people in a few pages. In a ' resentatives (including Thomas G. concise sweep of centuries of -hi- Masal"'yk) was repudiated after the of the republic, story, the author traces the fate- establishment ful course of -this small but dy- the Slovaks, rea.Jizing they were namic nation from the sixth cen- denied the right to selrf-governI ment in, their home country, retury to the present. ever before has a reader of newed the struggle, and the moveSlovak histori'Cal development had ment towards a free state of their the opportunity to learn so quickly , own was accelerated by both the the real story of a countl"'y whose irresistible force of freedom and destiny has been and still is close- the sweep of external events, rely associated with the life of its , suiting in the declara1Uon of Sloneighbors, namely, Czechs,, Aits- vak ind'ependen'Ce on, Miarch 14, trians, Germans, Poles, Russians, 11939. and Magyars, for here, in a com- , The book is enhanced by more pact vollllffie, the author has com- than a score of pictures that iipressed centuries of history as it ' lustrate highlights in the history occurred in the heart of Eurnpe of the Slovak nation. A suitable ! �77 SLOVAKIA bibliography of s·o me sixty sources indicates the thorough scho1'arship that produced it. Documents and letters relati'Ilg to the struggle of the Slo;vaiks for their right t'O self-governmeITTit and a free stathood are quoited as far back as April 13, '11849, when a group of Slovak deputies submitted a petition to the Ministry in Vienna for national recognition. These, a total of 712, are up to 1005. Thus, not only is this book designated fur popular :reading but also for serious study by students of hi'story. It will serve to provide them with a basic historical knowledge of the S1ovak nation, and wi11 g~ve them a reliaible insight in'to the incredibly fascinating story of Slovakia on the Danube. Andrew Pie.r, O.S.B., Director, Slovak Jn.stirtute, Cleveland, 0. 1 Jozef Pauco: Unconquerables. Vanitage P,ress, N. Y., Washington, Chi~caglo, Holly,wood. 225 pp., $3.50. In this a•ge of the exiled, the tempest-rossed and the oppressed, many have been the men and women of diverse political, religious and ied'ologicall persuasi·ons whose fate has been sung and whose cause won through global sympathy and recognition,. No less dramatic but perhaps less sung and stiU not won is the cause of the Slovak heroes, the unconqueraibles behind, the iron curtain, souls who could not and would not leave, cornvinced that their mission, is to remain, to oppose the foe and defend the id•e als that externally have succumbed but in their hearr ts burn on. Ph.D. Jlozef Paufo, son of S!lov,akia, whose road has led him from the Slovaik University into the world of journalism via Austria and West Germany, New York, and now Pennsylvancita, has recor- ded true stories of Silova,k heroism as personified in the "Whtie Legionnaires." Slova~ia, whose fight against Czech chauvfoism was as little appreciated as that of the Sudeten Germans a,g;afo,s t Czech encroachment, has a tale of its own to tell in the 20th cen•tury battle aga,i nst satanic Coonmuni sm. Those familiar with the Slo,vak people know that no wedge has been or can be driven between them and their clergy. The Slovaks are devout, loyal Catholics almost ro a man. Any stor,y olf their bravery against Bolshevism is at the same tJime a document o.f the valor olf their priests, nuns, and o,ther religious who to this very h1our are traveling a path to Calvary that only a glowing faith i-n the Crucified could make possible. The pages of Pauco's "Unrcon• queraib!tes" offer the reader no paipier-mache dons but filesh and blood men and women like Sister Katarina, enduring personal insuit and humi!Jiation, foreed to witness the desecra'tion of what she ho1ds most sacred; like teacher Stach, dediicated to saving Slovak youth from the acids of Bolshevist ideology by fonning secret schools to lecture on religi•on, ins<tihl Slovak ideals in young folk and keep good literature alive. We read of the diabolical chticanery iruvented to prevent the people oi a Slovak village from going on a pilgrimage and we see that simple faith undaunted even in the face o,f outright deceit and force . We see the enemy systematically trying to wproot Christian prindples from the school's and Slovak way of life and see the Legionna,i res fig;hting hack. Simple s'traightforwaror books like Pauco's should be placed on required reading lists for schools I �SLOVAKIA 78 and in public li!braries all over I L. Niederle, e<tc.) and try to shed the coullltry. Irts message goes right a new light on this, period of Slavic history and civilization. And to the heart. while we may disagree with their Frances McPoyne. "marxist" methods, it will be difStephen Smriik, S.J.,: The .flicult to deny the conclusfons Glagolitic or Romano-S'lavonic reached whi<ch are supported by Liturgy, Series Cyrill()'Illethodi- research in archeofogy and p,hiana, Slovak Institute, Cleve- lology. a'and, Rome, 195'9, 1120 pp., ilThe author of The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy wrote his lustraited; $2.50. The approachiing 1100th anni- I book on .this side of the Iron Curversary of the arrival of SS. Cyril , tain, in Rome, where und,oUlbtedly and Metiliodfos to Great Moravia, j many original sources, until now inspir-ed several Slovak Slavists to only partly or not at all used, publish a series of s,cholM"lY stu- ,I were at his disposal. Thi'S g,ives to dies in English called Cyrilome- his study on the introductii.on of thodiana. The first volume was the ancierut Slovak (Slovanic) Ianprepared by a Sloivak exipert in guage into the Christian, •l iturgy a medieval arts, Prolfessor J. G. Cin- value of original reaserch and cik. Allthougih its tiitle reads An- makes his book a contribution to glo-Saxon and Slovak-Avar Pat• the Slavis<tJics. Recognition of the terns of the Cuthbert Gospel, it re- Slovaniic language by ROlllle as one fers in its conclusions to the mis- of the liturgi.cal languages, at a sion of SS. Cyril and Meithodius. time when Slavs were lbut barba(See a rev-itew on, this in Slavic and rians, was an epoch-making eivent East European Studies, Vol. IIII, which laid the foundation for a F. 4, p. 240). The second volume I new Slav,i,c civilization that spread is the well,balanced and carefully ! from Great Moraivia and later d~ veloped among Southern and Eastedited study by Rev. Stephen zik, S.J., a learned Sllovak Jesuit, ern Slavs. The corutinuous interest study-Jng and teaching in Italy. 1 of Slavis'ts in this epooh is conGreat Moravia and the civiliza- ! sequently understandalble. tion which started in the t erri- 1 Father Sanrzik r,e-examined in tory of today's Sl 01Vakia, Moraivia, \ his scholarly treatise the views and Southern Poland, a,nd Slo-v enia I theories of several Slavi•s ts on• the (the comp'o nen:t parts of Greater IRoman-Slovanic liturgy, called also Moravia) with the missi'On of SS. the Glagolitic liturgy. In order to Cyril and Methodius, became in ! arrive at objective conclusions, the the past decades a favorite field of j author analyzed the theories which study and research of many S.la- j assert that the Roman Siova'lllic livis1ts of Polish, Slovak, Sloveni'an, I turgy was in't roduced already by Crech, and Hungartan origin. 1 the Slovak a,postles, CY["il and Scores of books have been, pulb- 1 Methodius, as well as the theories lis_hed b~hind the Iron Cm,tain on j whi~h assert that they _had no conthis subJect namely by Slovak and I nect110n whatsoever with the RoCzech archeologists and linguists mano.Slovanic liturgy. Writing his (Poul-&, Eisner, Tocik, Stanislav, : bO'ok in Rome, the author had an Isacenko, Dek>an, Pauliny, etc.) who : excellent opportunity for peru&ing challenge the vtiews and theories I all the principal works on the subof previous researche:rs (F. Dvor- ject. As a result, he gives us the nik, J . Skultety, P. Hrusovsky, V. views of Cherubi,n, Segivic, who exJagic, J. Dobrovsky, J. P. Safarik, pounded his theory on the origin Smr- 1 1 �SLOVAKIA on the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturrgy lin several puiblica'tions, denying the Cyrilo-Methodian origJn of the Roman-Slovanic liturgy, as weU as thie 1heories· of Orthodox authors Gorazd Pa,vlik and Jif.i Novak, on the one ha-nd, and recent pro-Cyrilomethodiian theories oif Ivan Bercic, F. Pasternak, S. Rittig, Anton Brtikner, and C. Mohlberg, on the otherr hand. The author g.ives a clear evaluation and a crlitique of all theories and presents a syn'thesis of the evolution and preserut status of the liturgy which, according to him, is western in its ceremonies and eastern in its· language. For Fiather Smrzik there is no douibt that the Roman-Slov~nic liturgy was introduced lby the Slovak apostles Cyril and Methodius in Gre-a t Moravia. Sinre he arri>ved at this coniclusion on the basis of a thorough study of so many eminent Slavists, whose works were predominenltly published in Slavic languages, his book is und'OUlbtedly a valualble contribution to the elucidation of the sulbject. The boolk also contains a chapter on history of the Roman-6110vanic liturgy which makes it an the more v,aluable for readers who are not acqua,i nted with the s·ubject. However, this chap'ter should have come, in this reviewer's opinion, -as Ohapter I. Chapter II, w,hich deals with t,h e oldest written record,s of the Rom,an-Siovanic liturgy, completes eff~ct-ively the picture of the origin and development of the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturgy. Scholars in Slaivic subje'cts will appreciate also the author's bilbliograiphy, but n1dt including an index is one of the shortcomings of this excellent and well-eddted stud!Y which is enr-ichied by several repro<lucti'Ons and illustrations. I 79 J. M. Kirschbaum: Contempo• rary Tendencies in Slovak Phi• lology, an offprint from the periodical SI:avk and East European Studies, Vol. IV, No. 3-4, Department Olf Slavic Stud:ies, University Olf Montreal; 114 pp. Though Professor Kirschlbaum's concise study is primair.iJy destinoo for scholars and teachers, it gives, neventheiess, a clear picture of Slovaik endeavors in the field of philology to all who -are interested in the Slovak languag,e and in its relation to other Slavic languages. Man!Y American and Canadian readers• will be sur,pci-sed to Jearn that the relation between the Czech and the Slovaik language is not onJy a relaitdon between two distinct Slavic languages, but ,t hat Czech poetry and prose are now tl"anslated !into rbhe Slovak and vice versa as the Polish or Russian have always been. There was much confusion albowt this relation even in academic circles. ,T he value of Kirschlbaum's ·new study !lies in its cleair elucida.bon of the sulbject and of the reasons which, for so many years w.ere res,ponsilble for the existing con/fusion. ,Divid-ed into three chapters, the s,tu,dy presents a short, ,b ut scholarly perusal of contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology which is sUJbject to Russian pressure in the same way as the whole Slovak cultural lilfe has been from [945. While the author of the s,tudy admits that Slovaik philology develops comparaitiv,e ly undisitUT1bed by the incluSlion of Slovaik:ia within the Soviet cultural and political s,p he,r e of influence, he points to the attempts o;f some young philologists to impose "iMarxlis,t" or "StaJin'·s" dir:ectives upon the J. M. Kirschbaum, aeti<vities o~ Slovak philologists. University of Montreal. An anialysis of two volumes olf 1 �SLOVAKIA 80 "Bilbl'iography of Slovak PhHolo gy" tional origin of these men, but Cfor the y,e ars 1'93•9,,119417 and 1'!)!4& especially the position and role 195'2) makes Kiirschlbaum's study of Sttir in forming m<Ydern literacy pa.r ticularly valuable, as it shows Slovak, in unifying the Slovak nahow th e indi,v idual £ields of Slo- tion, and ,l eading the Slov,aks in vak phi,1,ology de,v eloped during their fight for national survival the past 20 years. The fact, that and independence. The author c. i the study is based on a thorough ;•this 1booklet did not enumerate all resea11ch into original S1'ovalk ,t he availaibLe bilbliography, but works giv,es to this first English brought out the lit,e ratur,e based treatise of S1-0'Vak philology an •o n oriiginal manuscripts, which unadded va,Iue. fortuiniaitely are still little known A. 'D. . among the Sla,vists on ,this con1 . , , • , tinent, and a score of works in J. M. ~•rschbam: L'.udovit S t ~r several foreign 1'anguages. and His Pl~c! In the Slavic · Four condensed chapters which '-'."oiild, Sla,vistma No. 32, _if>uib- 1make up this booklet cannot exL1s_he~ by the Slovak In st itute, I haust the per,sonaliity of Iludlorvit Wmn11peg...JC1'erveland, 1 9 5 8; Stur as a philosopher of Prun.SlavG-4 PP' ism, as a linguist and philologist, il.ittle has !been written in Eng- ' as an aesthete and poet, and as a lish rubout Stur's ideas of Pan- ' Slovak naition1a,l leader. lt is our Slavism and about his •i deas con- hope that J. M. Kirschlbaum will cerning the stmgg,l e for indei)end- 1,e ventua•Lly enlarge this valuable ence of ,t he Slo;vaik nation, and study into a 11esource!ful book fulonoe he -exhausted all peac,efuil ly and thoroughly evaluating the ,parlJ.amentary and .political means, ; ~igan,ti,c personality of Iludovit his role ,in the Iieibellion against Stur. Magyar oppression in 11848. The John Rekem, Slovak natio•n, dly.ing a slow death ' Winniipeg. under Miagyar oppression, was 1 greatly l!eartened and strength- 1 AT LAST ened by Stur's new unifying liverary language and culitu~al pro- 'A HISTORY OF SLOVAK.IA grams •took on a new life. This I in En lish fina,lly led to Slovak independence : g in 193e. I SUPPLY IS LIMITED Even eminent scholars o.f Slavisti:cs did not look into the per- I Get your copy NOW. sonality of Iludovit Stur. Lack of 1 ,access to, the oriiginal works of i Cloth cover, 382 pages Stur led some Slavists t o accept I th•e judgment of ma,ny politica,Uy i $6.00 pr,ejuditced Czech authors. Some went so far as to laibel Stur with J. Kollar and Saifarik as Czechs 1 although they were SlovaJks. Stur's : by Gilbert L. Oddo greaitest achievement wa:s the codification of the new Slo:vak Ii- ' terary language. JEDNOTA PRINTERY Credit is due to Kirschbaum's P. 0. Bo,x 150 present booklet inasmuch as it Middletown, Pa. helps to clarify not only the na1 1 ============== 1 1 Slovakia And Its People � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 74 SLOVAKIA NEW BOOKS Gilbe rt L. Oddo: Slova kia and by the ,p roper and wide circulation Its People, Robert Speller and <Yf this book. Sons, New York, 1960; 362 pp., $6.00. This scholarly work is a most fitting tri!bute to the pla<ce and stature of Francis Hrufovsky in the annals of Slovakian histoi,y. Offered in memory of that distinguished Slov-ak historian, it serves as the first systemati:c history Olf the S:lovak nation in the English language. The privilege that Professor Gilbert L. Oddo enjoys in this respect is more than justilfied by the sterling at triibutes of his product. By careful research,, detailed documentat-i<on and balanced interpretation he has filled a gap in knowledlge and underst-anding that has existed for too long in the English-speaking countries. U!ns tfil now has ,b een a serious gap which no amount Olf pamphlets, papers and other transient media could adequately narrow. An important, authoritative source on the Slovak nat•ion has haippily emerged in, an important and leadin1g language of the world. While today many eyes are centered on Catholic countries like Olllba and others, wondering how and by what means a communist takeover might be achieived, tomorrow, as a result of works of this kind, they wti.11 become more and more focused on a predominantly Catholic counti,y behind the Iron Curtain which by no means has recei'Ved is fair due in world attention, evaluation and signi!ficance. Purposely distorted propaganda has clouded Western, and particUJlarly American, unldierstandi.ng r,f reality and aspirations r,f over four million people making urp the Slovak nat ion. Much of this politically contrived propaganda will undoulbtedly be dissi,pated It is truly amazinig the extent to which our thinkiing albout other people and nations is seriously discolored by myths and failse• hoods that ha.ve g-a,i ned currency through calculated effort on the part of the politiically ambitious few and, more so, through habitual usage and mental inertia. In these times it is even iroruical to hear many Olf our pwblic and private leaders urge in one breath that lfor our long-term security interests it is utterly indispensaible for us to understand other peoples and nations and then, in, the very ne~t breath, deny the distinctive nattiional existence of a given people by parroting unfounded and mis leading nomer·s and cliches. This writer has witnessed many trying, in efifect, to squMe a ciTcle by speaking, on the one hand, ()ff the glorious fight of Slovak patriots for nation.al independence and th en, on the other hand, reiterating the myth of a "Czechoslovak nation." Fortun,ately, in most instances this self-<!ontl'adiction is the con'sequence of an in~irm grasp of basiic essentials albout Slovaikia for which now there can be no excuse. lli. Oddo clearly and vividly provides t,h ese essentials in this hi-ghil.y readaible and accessible work. Despite the open record of nat ional Slovak resistance again•st communiist domination, the story of Slov.akia is a story Olf a nation's fight for fu'eedom and survival goes back well beyond the conteimpor,ary period. In a real sense, the present subjugation otf this undyin·g nation is only another chapter in, its long and evenbful history. Its cumulative experience in alternating periods of 1 1 1 SLOVAKIA 75 independence and capt-i<vity pre- tianirty, social justi'Ce, literature, pares and equips its people welll cuJture, and the freedom of Slofor the tasks and chaU,enges olf vak!ia. The role of Trnava Univerthe present struggle. As one readls sity, the Slovak role i 1n, the evoluwbout rthe many historic occaS:i.on-s tion of the Czechs, Slovak if.fieedom forming the distinctive history of and the 1848 Revolution, the St. this European nation, he cannot Martin Memorandum of '1001~ .the but feel doubly assured that here ::zech-0..Slovak Pact of May 30, 119118 erists one of the truest and most and many other events are events reliwble allies of the cause of that bespeak the vitality, growth, world freedom. This volume cov- ,persevernnK!e, and determinatio niof ers these occasions wrth moving •a strategica1liy situated nation. All an<l d~scr,iiptive force, an<l the in- 1 this and more spells out a vtbrant dis,pensalble persp~tri.ve gained by tradition whiich is the .living soul Olf the reader is insurance enough Slovakia, a permanent reaHrty that against the repetition of basic no amount ofmyt,h-mraking political errors concerning rthe right and propaganda can possilbly erase or property of an independent Slo- for .long conceal. With descriptive vak nation in the world fami1ly oil' 1 vividness· and factual proportion, IProfessor Ododo succeeds in tbringnations. .Asi<le from it.s naturcm. rJgoht of ing out this truth in all its luselif-deterunination - which really minous aspects. The pattern of events and tragic doesn't have rto •b e reasserted time and time again to es!Jalblish the development thwt characterizes the distinctive character and the sepa- long history of the Slovak nation rate national will of rthe Slorva!k is rem'barkalbly similar to that of people - the full creden,t ials of many other nations naw held in the Slovak nation for sovereignty captiv~ty in the Russian Coonmuanid independence are found in its nist Empini Ukraine, White RusliVt.ing history F1rom the earliest sia, Georgoia, Turkestan and other backgrounds to the pr,e sent, the subjugated nations in Eastern Eumovement of Slovakian existence rope and Central Asia have on difhas been toward e,opanded free- ferent stages of the historical dom or t-oward freedom itsellf. ! drama and at different times enFrom the ninth century, when the Icountered - indeed, still do share first Slovak ruler, Prince Prilbina, 1 - si:milar problems. Problems o!f reigned, to our century, when on identity and rightful. recogniti1on, Ma-rch '14, 1939, a new independ- ! of nationial survival and historical ent Slovakia emerged and was re- I truth, are problems foisted upon cognized by twenty-seven coun- I the Slovak nation by alien influI tries, this saga ·o f a people's iixed ences and powers as they are by dletermina1iion to be free and re- I simi1ar forces in these other areas. spocted a·s an equal among nations ! The nature and character of these abounds with heroes, events and j problems, whether arisin,g from achievements that would glorilfy / •b lind Western iniaipplicatfon of the the history of any nation, large . ,pri-nciple of national self-determin / ation, misinrter;pre,t,at.ion of the or small. The names of SS. Cyiril and Me- / Czecho-6lovak Pact, the Hitlerian thodius, Janosik, Anthony Beroo- 1episode arul the dtelimmas it posed laJc, Hlinka, Stefanik, Hurlban-V•a- to maniy peoples in Central and jansky, Dr. Joseph Tiso and numer- Easter.Ill Europe, are treated with ous other,s are historic names as- scholarly consideration and balsoci-aited with the advance o! Chni.s- ance in this work. They cannot be I 76 SLOVAKIA handled otherwise, for the strug-1 Slo,v ak culture, literature and the language of the oldest people gle of a people is involved. This struggle is today an in- in the Danube region, as well as tegral and important part of man- the democratic traditions of the krnd's struggle for freedom . The Slovak nation, are presented in so,mer many Amer,i cans realize an intiemgilble way. Moreover, the this, the better wm our position complex events that created and be in relation to all the eruptive shaped Czecho-Slovakia an'<i then. nations in the Russian Communi9t led to the declaration of Slovak Empire. The history of the free- 1 independence on March 14, 1939 dom-loving Slovak nation, as so (six months before the outbreak competently portrayed here, is a of the war, are so arranged sufficient guideline for our think- and exiplained as to give the ing, our policies, our actions and , reader a factual and mastierful survey of a hectic period in momost of all, for our conscience. dern history. Lev E. Dobriansky, Arrnerican Slovaks are credited Georgetown University. with the idea of Slovak independJoseph M. Kirschbaum: Slo- ence in the very frrst chaipter. vakia - Nation at the Cross- This trilbute is based upon the fact roads of Central Europe, Ro- that all during the present cenibel"'t Slpeller and Sons, Ne<w tury the Slova1ks here, inspired by York, 1960; 385 pp,, $5.00. the spir,it of American freedom, This latest work by the distin- have spared no effort to help their guished professor of Slavic Stu- fellow countrymen estalblish a free dies at the University of Montreal and self-governing state of their is a well balanced, coordinated and own. To this end they attempted weIJ.,calculated effort to give a forward step towards self-govthinking people a true picture of Iemment with the Czechs to be the Slovak nation struggling for equal partners in- the formation national freedom and survival since I of the first Republic of Czechothe dawn of western civilization. i Slovakra. (Cfr. the Cleveland In his introduction, Kirschbaum I Agreement of 1915 and the Pittsgives the reader a genuine histo- i burgh Pact of 19118). When the latrical prospective of the land and ter agreement with the Czech repits people in a few pages. In a ' resentatives (including Thomas G. concise sweep of centuries of -hi- Masal"'yk) was repudiated after the of the republic, story, the author traces the fate- establishment ful course of -this small but dy- the Slovaks, rea.Jizing they were namic nation from the sixth cen- denied the right to selrf-governI ment in, their home country, retury to the present. ever before has a reader of newed the struggle, and the moveSlovak histori'Cal development had ment towards a free state of their the opportunity to learn so quickly , own was accelerated by both the the real story of a countl"'y whose irresistible force of freedom and destiny has been and still is close- the sweep of external events, rely associated with the life of its , suiting in the declara1Uon of Sloneighbors, namely, Czechs,, Aits- vak ind'ependen'Ce on, Miarch 14, trians, Germans, Poles, Russians, 11939. and Magyars, for here, in a com- , The book is enhanced by more pact vollllffie, the author has com- than a score of pictures that iipressed centuries of history as it ' lustrate highlights in the history occurred in the heart of Eurnpe of the Slovak nation. A suitable ! 77 SLOVAKIA bibliography of s·o me sixty sources indicates the thorough scho1'arship that produced it. Documents and letters relati'Ilg to the struggle of the Slo;vaiks for their right t'O self-governmeITTit and a free stathood are quoited as far back as April 13, '11849, when a group of Slovak deputies submitted a petition to the Ministry in Vienna for national recognition. These, a total of 712, are up to 1005. Thus, not only is this book designated fur popular :reading but also for serious study by students of hi'story. It will serve to provide them with a basic historical knowledge of the S1ovak nation, and wi11 g~ve them a reliaible insight in'to the incredibly fascinating story of Slovakia on the Danube. Andrew Pie.r, O.S.B., Director, Slovak Jn.stirtute, Cleveland, 0. 1 Jozef Pauco: Unconquerables. Vanitage P,ress, N. Y., Washington, Chi~caglo, Holly,wood. 225 pp., $3.50. In this a•ge of the exiled, the tempest-rossed and the oppressed, many have been the men and women of diverse political, religious and ied'ologicall persuasi·ons whose fate has been sung and whose cause won through global sympathy and recognition,. No less dramatic but perhaps less sung and stiU not won is the cause of the Slovak heroes, the unconqueraibles behind, the iron curtain, souls who could not and would not leave, cornvinced that their mission, is to remain, to oppose the foe and defend the id•e als that externally have succumbed but in their hearr ts burn on. Ph.D. Jlozef Paufo, son of S!lov,akia, whose road has led him from the Slovaik University into the world of journalism via Austria and West Germany, New York, and now Pennsylvancita, has recor- ded true stories of Silova,k heroism as personified in the "Whtie Legionnaires." Slova~ia, whose fight against Czech chauvfoism was as little appreciated as that of the Sudeten Germans a,g;afo,s t Czech encroachment, has a tale of its own to tell in the 20th cen•tury battle aga,i nst satanic Coonmuni sm. Those familiar with the Slo,vak people know that no wedge has been or can be driven between them and their clergy. The Slovaks are devout, loyal Catholics almost ro a man. Any stor,y olf their bravery against Bolshevism is at the same tJime a document o.f the valor olf their priests, nuns, and o,ther religious who to this very h1our are traveling a path to Calvary that only a glowing faith i-n the Crucified could make possible. The pages of Pauco's "Unrcon• queraib!tes" offer the reader no paipier-mache dons but filesh and blood men and women like Sister Katarina, enduring personal insuit and humi!Jiation, foreed to witness the desecra'tion of what she ho1ds most sacred; like teacher Stach, dediicated to saving Slovak youth from the acids of Bolshevist ideology by fonning secret schools to lecture on religi•on, ins<tihl Slovak ideals in young folk and keep good literature alive. We read of the diabolical chticanery iruvented to prevent the people oi a Slovak village from going on a pilgrimage and we see that simple faith undaunted even in the face o,f outright deceit and force . We see the enemy systematically trying to wproot Christian prindples from the school's and Slovak way of life and see the Legionna,i res fig;hting hack. Simple s'traightforwaror books like Pauco's should be placed on required reading lists for schools I SLOVAKIA 78 and in public li!braries all over I L. Niederle, e<tc.) and try to shed the coullltry. Irts message goes right a new light on this, period of Slavic history and civilization. And to the heart. while we may disagree with their Frances McPoyne. "marxist" methods, it will be difStephen Smriik, S.J.,: The .flicult to deny the conclusfons Glagolitic or Romano-S'lavonic reached whi<ch are supported by Liturgy, Series Cyrill()'Illethodi- research in archeofogy and p,hiana, Slovak Institute, Cleve- lology. a'and, Rome, 195'9, 1120 pp., ilThe author of The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy wrote his lustraited; $2.50. The approachiing 1100th anni- I book on .this side of the Iron Curversary of the arrival of SS. Cyril , tain, in Rome, where und,oUlbtedly and Metiliodfos to Great Moravia, j many original sources, until now inspir-ed several Slovak Slavists to only partly or not at all used, publish a series of s,cholM"lY stu- ,I were at his disposal. Thi'S g,ives to dies in English called Cyrilome- his study on the introductii.on of thodiana. The first volume was the ancierut Slovak (Slovanic) Ianprepared by a Sloivak exipert in guage into the Christian, •l iturgy a medieval arts, Prolfessor J. G. Cin- value of original reaserch and cik. Allthougih its tiitle reads An- makes his book a contribution to glo-Saxon and Slovak-Avar Pat• the Slavis<tJics. Recognition of the terns of the Cuthbert Gospel, it re- Slovaniic language by ROlllle as one fers in its conclusions to the mis- of the liturgi.cal languages, at a sion of SS. Cyril and Meithodius. time when Slavs were lbut barba(See a rev-itew on, this in Slavic and rians, was an epoch-making eivent East European Studies, Vol. IIII, which laid the foundation for a F. 4, p. 240). The second volume I new Slav,i,c civilization that spread is the well,balanced and carefully ! from Great Moraivia and later d~ veloped among Southern and Eastedited study by Rev. Stephen zik, S.J., a learned Sllovak Jesuit, ern Slavs. The corutinuous interest study-Jng and teaching in Italy. 1 of Slavis'ts in this epooh is conGreat Moravia and the civiliza- ! sequently understandalble. tion which started in the t erri- 1 Father Sanrzik r,e-examined in tory of today's Sl 01Vakia, Moraivia, \ his scholarly treatise the views and Southern Poland, a,nd Slo-v enia I theories of several Slavi•s ts on• the (the comp'o nen:t parts of Greater IRoman-Slovanic liturgy, called also Moravia) with the missi'On of SS. the Glagolitic liturgy. In order to Cyril and Methodius, became in ! arrive at objective conclusions, the the past decades a favorite field of j author analyzed the theories which study and research of many S.la- j assert that the Roman Siova'lllic livis1ts of Polish, Slovak, Sloveni'an, I turgy was in't roduced already by Crech, and Hungartan origin. 1 the Slovak a,postles, CY["il and Scores of books have been, pulb- 1 Methodius, as well as the theories lis_hed b~hind the Iron Cm,tain on j whi~h assert that they _had no conthis subJect namely by Slovak and I nect110n whatsoever with the RoCzech archeologists and linguists mano.Slovanic liturgy. Writing his (Poul-&, Eisner, Tocik, Stanislav, : bO'ok in Rome, the author had an Isacenko, Dek>an, Pauliny, etc.) who : excellent opportunity for peru&ing challenge the vtiews and theories I all the principal works on the subof previous researche:rs (F. Dvor- ject. As a result, he gives us the nik, J . Skultety, P. Hrusovsky, V. views of Cherubi,n, Segivic, who exJagic, J. Dobrovsky, J. P. Safarik, pounded his theory on the origin Smr- 1 1 SLOVAKIA on the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturrgy lin several puiblica'tions, denying the Cyrilo-Methodian origJn of the Roman-Slovanic liturgy, as weU as thie 1heories· of Orthodox authors Gorazd Pa,vlik and Jif.i Novak, on the one ha-nd, and recent pro-Cyrilomethodiian theories oif Ivan Bercic, F. Pasternak, S. Rittig, Anton Brtikner, and C. Mohlberg, on the otherr hand. The author g.ives a clear evaluation and a crlitique of all theories and presents a syn'thesis of the evolution and preserut status of the liturgy which, according to him, is western in its ceremonies and eastern in its· language. For Fiather Smrzik there is no douibt that the Roman-Slov~nic liturgy was introduced lby the Slovak apostles Cyril and Methodius in Gre-a t Moravia. Sinre he arri>ved at this coniclusion on the basis of a thorough study of so many eminent Slavists, whose works were predominenltly published in Slavic languages, his book is und'OUlbtedly a valualble contribution to the elucidation of the sulbject. The boolk also contains a chapter on history of the Roman-6110vanic liturgy which makes it an the more v,aluable for readers who are not acqua,i nted with the s·ubject. However, this chap'ter should have come, in this reviewer's opinion, -as Ohapter I. Chapter II, w,hich deals with t,h e oldest written record,s of the Rom,an-Siovanic liturgy, completes eff~ct-ively the picture of the origin and development of the ROl!Ilan-Slovanic liturgy. Scholars in Slaivic subje'cts will appreciate also the author's bilbliograiphy, but n1dt including an index is one of the shortcomings of this excellent and well-eddted stud!Y which is enr-ichied by several repro<lucti'Ons and illustrations. I 79 J. M. Kirschbaum: Contempo• rary Tendencies in Slovak Phi• lology, an offprint from the periodical SI:avk and East European Studies, Vol. IV, No. 3-4, Department Olf Slavic Stud:ies, University Olf Montreal; 114 pp. Though Professor Kirschlbaum's concise study is primair.iJy destinoo for scholars and teachers, it gives, neventheiess, a clear picture of Slovaik endeavors in the field of philology to all who -are interested in the Slovak languag,e and in its relation to other Slavic languages. Man!Y American and Canadian readers• will be sur,pci-sed to Jearn that the relation between the Czech and the Slovaik language is not onJy a relaitdon between two distinct Slavic languages, but ,t hat Czech poetry and prose are now tl"anslated !into rbhe Slovak and vice versa as the Polish or Russian have always been. There was much confusion albowt this relation even in academic circles. ,T he value of Kirschlbaum's ·new study !lies in its cleair elucida.bon of the sulbject and of the reasons which, for so many years w.ere res,ponsilble for the existing con/fusion. ,Divid-ed into three chapters, the s,tu,dy presents a short, ,b ut scholarly perusal of contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology which is sUJbject to Russian pressure in the same way as the whole Slovak cultural lilfe has been from [945. While the author of the s,tudy admits that Slovaik philology develops comparaitiv,e ly undisitUT1bed by the incluSlion of Slovaik:ia within the Soviet cultural and political s,p he,r e of influence, he points to the attempts o;f some young philologists to impose "iMarxlis,t" or "StaJin'·s" dir:ectives upon the J. M. Kirschbaum, aeti<vities o~ Slovak philologists. University of Montreal. An anialysis of two volumes olf 1 SLOVAKIA 80 "Bilbl'iography of Slovak PhHolo gy" tional origin of these men, but Cfor the y,e ars 1'93•9,,119417 and 1'!)!4& especially the position and role 195'2) makes Kiirschlbaum's study of Sttir in forming m<Ydern literacy pa.r ticularly valuable, as it shows Slovak, in unifying the Slovak nahow th e indi,v idual £ields of Slo- tion, and ,l eading the Slov,aks in vak phi,1,ology de,v eloped during their fight for national survival the past 20 years. The fact, that and independence. The author c. i the study is based on a thorough ;•this 1booklet did not enumerate all resea11ch into original S1'ovalk ,t he availaibLe bilbliography, but works giv,es to this first English brought out the lit,e ratur,e based treatise of S1-0'Vak philology an •o n oriiginal manuscripts, which unadded va,Iue. fortuiniaitely are still little known A. 'D. . among the Sla,vists on ,this con1 . , , • , tinent, and a score of works in J. M. ~•rschbam: L'.udovit S t ~r several foreign 1'anguages. and His Pl~c! In the Slavic · Four condensed chapters which '-'."oiild, Sla,vistma No. 32, _if>uib- 1make up this booklet cannot exL1s_he~ by the Slovak In st itute, I haust the per,sonaliity of Iludlorvit Wmn11peg...JC1'erveland, 1 9 5 8; Stur as a philosopher of Prun.SlavG-4 PP' ism, as a linguist and philologist, il.ittle has !been written in Eng- ' as an aesthete and poet, and as a lish rubout Stur's ideas of Pan- ' Slovak naition1a,l leader. lt is our Slavism and about his •i deas con- hope that J. M. Kirschlbaum will cerning the stmgg,l e for indei)end- 1,e ventua•Lly enlarge this valuable ence of ,t he Slo;vaik nation, and study into a 11esource!ful book fulonoe he -exhausted all peac,efuil ly and thoroughly evaluating the ,parlJ.amentary and .political means, ; ~igan,ti,c personality of Iludovit his role ,in the Iieibellion against Stur. Magyar oppression in 11848. The John Rekem, Slovak natio•n, dly.ing a slow death ' Winniipeg. under Miagyar oppression, was 1 greatly l!eartened and strength- 1 AT LAST ened by Stur's new unifying liverary language and culitu~al pro- 'A HISTORY OF SLOVAK.IA grams •took on a new life. This I in En lish fina,lly led to Slovak independence : g in 193e. I SUPPLY IS LIMITED Even eminent scholars o.f Slavisti:cs did not look into the per- I Get your copy NOW. sonality of Iludovit Stur. Lack of 1 ,access to, the oriiginal works of i Cloth cover, 382 pages Stur led some Slavists t o accept I th•e judgment of ma,ny politica,Uy i $6.00 pr,ejuditced Czech authors. Some went so far as to laibel Stur with J. Kollar and Saifarik as Czechs 1 although they were SlovaJks. Stur's : by Gilbert L. Oddo greaitest achievement wa:s the codification of the new Slo:vak Ii- ' terary language. JEDNOTA PRINTERY Credit is due to Kirschbaum's P. 0. Bo,x 150 present booklet inasmuch as it Middletown, Pa. helps to clarify not only the na1 1 ============== 1 1 Slovakia And Its People  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31) Description An account of the resource includes book reviews, pp. 74-80 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c9ed2e91498017d25650811bd9236dcb.pdf 8dea548c4a3cbc31b7702391beb76524 PDF Text Text VOL. X SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, l lr IN THIS ISSUE : J. G. KOHL AND 111-IE SLOVAKS WAS T. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK OR:IGIN? MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVA1K,IA CHUR:CHES IN A VISE NEJW S"DRICTURiES ON BBNES CONTEJMiPORARY TENDEJNOIES EN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY LET'S PUT SLOVAK ·I N THE Ol.JiRmCULUM OASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: CACH1'ICE COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY " MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE HUMAN RIGHTS AND EX]LES WHEJRE ALL ROADS BND ABOUT 1~fE AUTHORS BOOK RE\li]EWS WHO SAID IT - 6, 13, 24, 37, 64 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by T H E SLOVAK LEAGU E OF AMERI CA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAK.IA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL SLOVAK.IA EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROl\l SLOVAK IIISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA , Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM., Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. "CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 I;UDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J . Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, harJ struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLO VAK IA Published by the Slovak League of Ame rica VOL. X NO. 7 (32 ) SE PTEMBER- DIECEM'BE'R, 1960 1 Accordi111g to tts new Oonsti'tu,. tion, the old Masarylk.JBenes Czecho-&lovak Republic (CSR) is now offieia,l,ey caliled the Czecho-&lovak Socialist Repulblic (CSSR). Weill, that haipless country was a socialistic state froon its inception. Masaeyk and Benes, and their con,t roHed proipa,gianda a,pparatus, told the world that CSR meant Czecho-Slovak Repulblic, but to the Ozechs it ailways did mean Czech Soc ial ist Republic. Adding one more S" to the aibbre'Via<ted furm reaiH,y changed nothirug, ex:cept perhaps to have CSSR read: OZE• liigion or ,go to the Saicraiments. Slovak teachers who attend Mass are blaclclisted and ultimately replaced. "'IlHEY NiEViER HAID IT SO GOOD" is continued to be used by the Czechs in reference to the Slovaks. Nothing has changed in this regard: Masa,cyk a,nd Benes used the e:,cpression before the Czech Reds took over. ]n eastern Slo,v akia, however, accordring to the communist dai1ly RRiA.VlDA, peoiple 'look in vain for chlildren's wear, ladies underthings, and furORD-SOVIET SOOiiA[.JSf!' REPUB- nitmre; chocofate candy, too, is LIC. The Slovaks have n-0 voice. ra,reLy found in, the stores. 11 AlN A'I10MIC HESEAIRCH CEINRED PRIAGll.JE blows hot and 'I1ER was recen1tlry set up by Czech cold on Israel. I1: used to f.Ull'nish a,tomic ®ecialists in Rez, a villa;ge just north of Praig,ue. 'I1he project wa's under the directi.on atomdc specialists. o,£ Russi-an Czech techniciws M"e being trained by the Soviet Russian engineer Roonanov. Thus far some eiighty lai,ge buildings hav-e been built; nearing coonpletion i s a radrio-chemical research institute which is 140 meters 1-ong. 1 Israel with weapons and m11.mitions; a[so toohnici,a ns. Then it held odif support for a while. Now the Czech Red'S have odifered Israeli authorities data on the Eichmann case to emlbarrass and discredit Gerunan,y and its people in the eyes of the world. Tlhe old Czech game of duplicity never ends. . WiHiAT H.AiPiPIIDNm to the so" " "' 'IlHlE BRI.ATISLA.1\7A RJAD[O, on catlled ''Council of Free CzechosloNovemlber 17, related about the vadcia"? Ax:cording to t,h e Czechs prdblem of gara,ges, revea'1ing that themsie1'ves, it foH apart soone there were no mor,e than 300 au- months a•go when adl but representos i,n Kosice, the second 1-ai,gest tatives of the Czech Nazis wandoned it. J. Lett.rich, Fr. Nemec,. city in Slovakia. R. Frastaoky, Fedor Hodza, Ste• • • 'IlHJE CZECH REDS in~st thait. phen Osusky, J . Cerny, J. Mrazek,. aill teachers in Slovakia break with A. Heidrich, A. Prochazlm, V. Ma-the Cathollic Ohurch and becoone I jer, aind V. Fedinec alleged[,y quit the chief propagators of atheism. 1the outfit because they were fed' Their childtren must not study re- wp wtllth Dr. Peter Zenkl's dicta<to- �2 SLOVAKIA rial condluct. After Dr. Hulbert Riiipka's death, Dr. Zenkil was regarded as No. 1 representaltive Olf the late Dr. Edward Benes' Czech National Socia,list ~Czech Nazi) Party. tics, 638,516 people owned regular radio sets in 1960, whJ1le 74,778 people had "wired" broadcasts. The population o,f Sloivakia is over the four mi1b!Jio·n m'a rk. DR. m'I1E)R ZElNlKIL s~gned the recerut memorandtliIIl Olf the OFC anent the forced eJQPU!lsion Olf the Sudeten Germans, a<Xording to which the Czechs under Zenkl declare that the "Gemna,n question" Olf Czecho.SloV'alcia is forever settled. The memo caused quite a stir in West Germany and a:lso aimong exiJe growps in the USA. Dr. Zemel happens to be the chairma,n Olf the Aissemfbliy oif Captive European Nlabions organization, so the memo Olf the OFC casts a darlk shadoiw over the latter. This is deeply resented by the represenltati<ves of the other exiQe growps oif AIOEN. The No. 1, Czech Nazi's days as chairman oif ACEN defrnitelry seem to be numlbered. "SIU'N[)!AJY NIEIE(I) NlOT BE ON SUINIDAIY," accordin,g to the Bratislav,a 'PRAOA' 'oif Novel!lllber 27. Czech Reds tel11 the Slovaks tha-t the work week wiU be shortened from 48 to 40 hours, BIUT quotas must be met. In other words : what can be done in. 48 hours, IDJUst be done in 40. When the chanige will cOIIIle, however, no one see<rns to know. "A da\Y Olf rest," says the Red mouthpiece,- "can be any day, no't necessarily Sunday, a,nd when the Party orders the people to work on Slunday, the(Y must work on Sunday." Obv<iouslry, the Reds wihl never quirt fighting religion. The vast madority oif Slovak.s are Catholic; they want to go to church on Sund!ay, but the Reds say: the Party comes first! OCTOOER 4, 1960, marked the bi..cen'tennial oif the birth oif the great Slovak ,patriot Alexander Cardinal Rudnay who wHl always be rememlbered :fior his expres,. sion: "I aim a Slovak, and I shall remaJn a Slovak even ilf I occwpy the chalir oif Peter!" Born in Svaty Kriz nad VahOIIIl, Slovakia, October 4, 1760, Cardinal Rudnaiy died Sepbemiber IB, 11831. THIE 60 BUSIES of Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, are equirprped with radio receivers, the "Praca" paper Olf Biratisl:a,va informs its readers. It adds, however, that soonebod\Y is qutite negligent, because the radios that function can be C01U,nited on the firugers Olf one hand. I!N SLOVAlIGA the people are bei'll!g heavily lectured on the ''conlfllict between science and reliigion." The Red;s under the tutetage oif Moscow must prove to the Slov~s thait ".r,elilgion is necessacy on,1,y for the weak, the strong do not need it." 'I1hat's 1ike tehlillJg the Slovaks they do not need s.clt! • • • .BRAYIERiBOOKS are ndt avail- alble for the people Olf Slovakia. Almeri-can cousins have been anS1Wering the caMs for more, but the Ozech Red regime began to stamp· the Heims "not allowed" and returned them to the senders. Now we learn tha.t the Redis decided to pr:init a111d sell prayerbooks to Slovaks in the USA to get more Almericam, $$$. Now they tell the Slovaks that the short• AOCORDIING TO od'lficial startis- a,g e oif prayerbook!s is caused by �SLOVAKIA American .iJmiperiaHsts. The Reds and are don't miss a trielk constantly thinking up new ones to deceive and coruf.use their slaves. • • • R.AID[O FREE EUROBE has re- organized ills "Czec'ho-Sllo,v ak" unirt in Munich, firing 18 emp}oyoos: Bena,, Koditun, Kuihanek, Eriban, Meloun, Schneider, Pejslmr, Suda, Stolick,a, Schott, Sklilbova, Vanek (-a,H Czechs); and Bel"ger-Belak, Kovac, Petrovic, Kr,uxliak, Sepiilk:o, and Steifaneik (Slovaks). Jit seems thart A,merican '"l1R'UTH DOULJAlRS" have caused a lot of people to stra,y from the truth, and we don't necessard1y mean any of those fired either. Let's see how man.y fomner ~ emploiyees spied for the Red Czech's? THIE OAIUSE of the latest wholesaJe dismissail has been zeatlously kept from the notice of America,n s who paiy the biUs for the muliti-miHion-dohlar RIAIDIO FRi0E EUROOE organization. Now we have it from our Munich source that the aibove were fired because they were among the 28 Slovak and Czech employees who had dared to protest agalinst the appointment of one Osiwa:ld Kositrlb1a as head of the Czecho-Sfovak section by the boss of RIFE's opera.ti'n,g center in Munich, Eric Hazeilhoif. When the smoke deared, Hazelhof was forced to resign, a-long with M. C. MaoNei4rl, the _pers0Tu11ell ,d irrector, anld David Penn, a politilcal conrsurlitant. The protest against Kosltrba charged that Kosrtroa• was not quaHfied• for the jolb, opposed to R'FIE's goals, and comrpromi'sed by strorug pro-COIIIllmundst contacts which da;ted bacik to the war and Dr. Benes' espiona,g•e 3 outfit. Kostr;ba, the protesrtors clalirned, was assocfated with L. Freund (Frejka), a communisit agent later executed by the Czech Reds Ln, the Slansiky trial (:1952), and wiith one Mr. Frenzel', a Bavarian deputy recentI,y arrested by the Bavarian poHce fur his connection with the Kostrlba gro,uip. lit is not a secrelt that wilthin the past four or five years more than a dozen of the R'FIE's Czech staff embarrassed its sponsor by defecting to the Ea,s t and then, vi.liif~n,g them from Radfo Pralgue. In 195:8 one F. Machacek jumped the curain. Two y,e ars earlier, the Frenth poHce had repo1'1ed· him as an enemy a,gent, but the RJFIE stubbomil y insisted on retairrin,g him as irts Czech represenltatirve in Paris. The reward for exiposiirug Czech Red a•g ents in RJFlE: dismissa'1. MBlions of "Truth Dol'lars" coJilected from Americans by the Cruisad-e For 'Freedom went to the crusaders for slavecy. wm Amerkans ever learn? The least we can do: r~ ques,t Congress to investilgate Radio Free ffiuwpe and the other acrtivities of the Free Europe Coanmi ttee. OZEOH REOS seem to enjoy havin1g their country caHed "the arsena,l of the communiist wor.ld." Wearpon.s and munitions are going to Cwba, Red China, Laos, and the Africa,n counrtries. Technicians a'lso·. The Czechs seem to be the "chosen people" of Moscow. Mlasaryrk, a·n d Benes certainrly worked •~mirades" with the Czechs from 1918 to 194'8, makd•n g their natlion as Red as the bloody emipire olf Moscow. Fo·r thiSJ the United Sta•tes honored T. G. Ma&aryk with a "Champion Olf Lilberty" postage stamp. What mockery! � VOL. X SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, l lr IN THIS ISSUE : J. G. KOHL AND 111-IE SLOVAKS WAS T. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK OR:IGIN? MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVA1K,IA CHUR:CHES IN A VISE NEJW S"DRICTURiES ON BBNES CONTEJMiPORARY TENDEJNOIES EN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY LET'S PUT SLOVAK ·I N THE Ol.JiRmCULUM OASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: CACH1'ICE COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY " MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE HUMAN RIGHTS AND EX]LES WHEJRE ALL ROADS BND ABOUT 1~fE AUTHORS BOOK RE\li]EWS WHO SAID IT - 6, 13, 24, 37, 64 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by T H E SLOVAK LEAGU E OF AMERI CA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAK.IA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL SLOVAK.IA EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROl\l SLOVAK IIISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA , Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM., Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. "CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 I;UDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J . Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, harJ struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLO VAK IA Published by the Slovak League of Ame rica VOL. X NO. 7 (32 ) SE PTEMBER- DIECEM'BE'R, 1960 1 Accordi111g to tts new Oonsti'tu,. tion, the old Masarylk.JBenes Czecho-&lovak Republic (CSR) is now offieia,l,ey caliled the Czecho-&lovak Socialist Repulblic (CSSR). Weill, that haipless country was a socialistic state froon its inception. Masaeyk and Benes, and their con,t roHed proipa,gianda a,pparatus, told the world that CSR meant Czecho-Slovak Repulblic, but to the Ozechs it ailways did mean Czech Soc ial ist Republic. Adding one more S" to the aibbre'Via<ted furm reaiH,y changed nothirug, ex:cept perhaps to have CSSR read: OZE• liigion or ,go to the Saicraiments. Slovak teachers who attend Mass are blaclclisted and ultimately replaced. "'IlHEY NiEViER HAID IT SO GOOD" is continued to be used by the Czechs in reference to the Slovaks. Nothing has changed in this regard: Masa,cyk a,nd Benes used the e:,cpression before the Czech Reds took over. ]n eastern Slo,v akia, however, accordring to the communist dai1ly RRiA.VlDA, peoiple 'look in vain for chlildren's wear, ladies underthings, and furORD-SOVIET SOOiiA[.JSf!' REPUB- nitmre; chocofate candy, too, is LIC. The Slovaks have n-0 voice. ra,reLy found in, the stores. 11 AlN A'I10MIC HESEAIRCH CEINRED PRIAGll.JE blows hot and 'I1ER was recen1tlry set up by Czech cold on Israel. I1: used to f.Ull'nish a,tomic ®ecialists in Rez, a villa;ge just north of Praig,ue. 'I1he project wa's under the directi.on atomdc specialists. o,£ Russi-an Czech techniciws M"e being trained by the Soviet Russian engineer Roonanov. Thus far some eiighty lai,ge buildings hav-e been built; nearing coonpletion i s a radrio-chemical research institute which is 140 meters 1-ong. 1 Israel with weapons and m11.mitions; a[so toohnici,a ns. Then it held odif support for a while. Now the Czech Red'S have odifered Israeli authorities data on the Eichmann case to emlbarrass and discredit Gerunan,y and its people in the eyes of the world. Tlhe old Czech game of duplicity never ends. . WiHiAT H.AiPiPIIDNm to the so" " "' 'IlHlE BRI.ATISLA.1\7A RJAD[O, on catlled ''Council of Free CzechosloNovemlber 17, related about the vadcia"? Ax:cording to t,h e Czechs prdblem of gara,ges, revea'1ing that themsie1'ves, it foH apart soone there were no mor,e than 300 au- months a•go when adl but representos i,n Kosice, the second 1-ai,gest tatives of the Czech Nazis wandoned it. J. Lett.rich, Fr. Nemec,. city in Slovakia. R. Frastaoky, Fedor Hodza, Ste• • • 'IlHJE CZECH REDS in~st thait. phen Osusky, J . Cerny, J. Mrazek,. aill teachers in Slovakia break with A. Heidrich, A. Prochazlm, V. Ma-the Cathollic Ohurch and becoone I jer, aind V. Fedinec alleged[,y quit the chief propagators of atheism. 1the outfit because they were fed' Their childtren must not study re- wp wtllth Dr. Peter Zenkl's dicta<to- �2 SLOVAKIA rial condluct. After Dr. Hulbert Riiipka's death, Dr. Zenkil was regarded as No. 1 representaltive Olf the late Dr. Edward Benes' Czech National Socia,list ~Czech Nazi) Party. tics, 638,516 people owned regular radio sets in 1960, whJ1le 74,778 people had "wired" broadcasts. The population o,f Sloivakia is over the four mi1b!Jio·n m'a rk. DR. m'I1E)R ZElNlKIL s~gned the recerut memorandtliIIl Olf the OFC anent the forced eJQPU!lsion Olf the Sudeten Germans, a<Xording to which the Czechs under Zenkl declare that the "Gemna,n question" Olf Czecho.SloV'alcia is forever settled. The memo caused quite a stir in West Germany and a:lso aimong exiJe growps in the USA. Dr. Zemel happens to be the chairma,n Olf the Aissemfbliy oif Captive European Nlabions organization, so the memo Olf the OFC casts a darlk shadoiw over the latter. This is deeply resented by the represenltati<ves of the other exiQe growps oif AIOEN. The No. 1, Czech Nazi's days as chairman oif ACEN defrnitelry seem to be numlbered. "SIU'N[)!AJY NIEIE(I) NlOT BE ON SUINIDAIY," accordin,g to the Bratislav,a 'PRAOA' 'oif Novel!lllber 27. Czech Reds tel11 the Slovaks tha-t the work week wiU be shortened from 48 to 40 hours, BIUT quotas must be met. In other words : what can be done in. 48 hours, IDJUst be done in 40. When the chanige will cOIIIle, however, no one see<rns to know. "A da\Y Olf rest," says the Red mouthpiece,- "can be any day, no't necessarily Sunday, a,nd when the Party orders the people to work on Slunday, the(Y must work on Sunday." Obv<iouslry, the Reds wihl never quirt fighting religion. The vast madority oif Slovak.s are Catholic; they want to go to church on Sund!ay, but the Reds say: the Party comes first! OCTOOER 4, 1960, marked the bi..cen'tennial oif the birth oif the great Slovak ,patriot Alexander Cardinal Rudnay who wHl always be rememlbered :fior his expres,. sion: "I aim a Slovak, and I shall remaJn a Slovak even ilf I occwpy the chalir oif Peter!" Born in Svaty Kriz nad VahOIIIl, Slovakia, October 4, 1760, Cardinal Rudnaiy died Sepbemiber IB, 11831. THIE 60 BUSIES of Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, are equirprped with radio receivers, the "Praca" paper Olf Biratisl:a,va informs its readers. It adds, however, that soonebod\Y is qutite negligent, because the radios that function can be C01U,nited on the firugers Olf one hand. I!N SLOVAlIGA the people are bei'll!g heavily lectured on the ''conlfllict between science and reliigion." The Red;s under the tutetage oif Moscow must prove to the Slov~s thait ".r,elilgion is necessacy on,1,y for the weak, the strong do not need it." 'I1hat's 1ike tehlillJg the Slovaks they do not need s.clt! • • • .BRAYIERiBOOKS are ndt avail- alble for the people Olf Slovakia. Almeri-can cousins have been anS1Wering the caMs for more, but the Ozech Red regime began to stamp· the Heims "not allowed" and returned them to the senders. Now we learn tha.t the Redis decided to pr:init a111d sell prayerbooks to Slovaks in the USA to get more Almericam, $$$. Now they tell the Slovaks that the short• AOCORDIING TO od'lficial startis- a,g e oif prayerbook!s is caused by �SLOVAKIA American .iJmiperiaHsts. The Reds and are don't miss a trielk constantly thinking up new ones to deceive and coruf.use their slaves. • • • R.AID[O FREE EUROBE has re- organized ills "Czec'ho-Sllo,v ak" unirt in Munich, firing 18 emp}oyoos: Bena,, Koditun, Kuihanek, Eriban, Meloun, Schneider, Pejslmr, Suda, Stolick,a, Schott, Sklilbova, Vanek (-a,H Czechs); and Bel"ger-Belak, Kovac, Petrovic, Kr,uxliak, Sepiilk:o, and Steifaneik (Slovaks). Jit seems thart A,merican '"l1R'UTH DOULJAlRS" have caused a lot of people to stra,y from the truth, and we don't necessard1y mean any of those fired either. Let's see how man.y fomner ~ emploiyees spied for the Red Czech's? THIE OAIUSE of the latest wholesaJe dismissail has been zeatlously kept from the notice of America,n s who paiy the biUs for the muliti-miHion-dohlar RIAIDIO FRi0E EUROOE organization. Now we have it from our Munich source that the aibove were fired because they were among the 28 Slovak and Czech employees who had dared to protest agalinst the appointment of one Osiwa:ld Kositrlb1a as head of the Czecho-Sfovak section by the boss of RIFE's opera.ti'n,g center in Munich, Eric Hazeilhoif. When the smoke deared, Hazelhof was forced to resign, a-long with M. C. MaoNei4rl, the _pers0Tu11ell ,d irrector, anld David Penn, a politilcal conrsurlitant. The protest against Kosltrba charged that Kosrtroa• was not quaHfied• for the jolb, opposed to R'FIE's goals, and comrpromi'sed by strorug pro-COIIIllmundst contacts which da;ted bacik to the war and Dr. Benes' espiona,g•e 3 outfit. Kostr;ba, the protesrtors clalirned, was assocfated with L. Freund (Frejka), a communisit agent later executed by the Czech Reds Ln, the Slansiky trial (:1952), and wiith one Mr. Frenzel', a Bavarian deputy recentI,y arrested by the Bavarian poHce fur his connection with the Kostrlba gro,uip. lit is not a secrelt that wilthin the past four or five years more than a dozen of the R'FIE's Czech staff embarrassed its sponsor by defecting to the Ea,s t and then, vi.liif~n,g them from Radfo Pralgue. In 195:8 one F. Machacek jumped the curain. Two y,e ars earlier, the Frenth poHce had repo1'1ed· him as an enemy a,gent, but the RJFIE stubbomil y insisted on retairrin,g him as irts Czech represenltatirve in Paris. The reward for exiposiirug Czech Red a•g ents in RJFlE: dismissa'1. MBlions of "Truth Dol'lars" coJilected from Americans by the Cruisad-e For 'Freedom went to the crusaders for slavecy. wm Amerkans ever learn? The least we can do: r~ ques,t Congress to investilgate Radio Free ffiuwpe and the other acrtivities of the Free Europe Coanmi ttee. OZEOH REOS seem to enjoy havin1g their country caHed "the arsena,l of the communiist wor.ld." Wearpon.s and munitions are going to Cwba, Red China, Laos, and the Africa,n counrtries. Technicians a'lso·. The Czechs seem to be the "chosen people" of Moscow. Mlasaryrk, a·n d Benes certainrly worked •~mirades" with the Czechs from 1918 to 194'8, makd•n g their natlion as Red as the bloody emipire olf Moscow. Fo·r thiSJ the United Sta•tes honored T. G. Ma&aryk with a "Champion Olf Lilberty" postage stamp. What mockery! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document VOL. X SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, l lr IN THIS ISSUE : J. G. KOHL AND 111-IE SLOVAKS WAS T. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK OR:IGIN? MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVA1K,IA CHUR:CHES IN A VISE NEJW S"DRICTURiES ON BBNES CONTEJMiPORARY TENDEJNOIES EN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY LET'S PUT SLOVAK ·I N THE Ol.JiRmCULUM OASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: CACH1'ICE COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY " MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE HUMAN RIGHTS AND EX]LES WHEJRE ALL ROADS BND ABOUT 1~fE AUTHORS BOOK RE\li]EWS WHO SAID IT - 6, 13, 24, 37, 64 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by T H E SLOVAK LEAGU E OF AMERI CA RECOMMENDED BOOKS: SLOVAK.IA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00. NATION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CENTRAL SLOVAK.IA EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00. THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROl\l SLOVAK IIISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA , Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM., Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. "CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 I;UDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J . Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, harJ struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. SLO VAK IA Published by the Slovak League of Ame rica VOL. X NO. 7 (32 ) SE PTEMBER- DIECEM'BE'R, 1960 1 Accordi111g to tts new Oonsti'tu,. tion, the old Masarylk.JBenes Czecho-&lovak Republic (CSR) is now offieia,l,ey caliled the Czecho-&lovak Socialist Repulblic (CSSR). Weill, that haipless country was a socialistic state froon its inception. Masaeyk and Benes, and their con,t roHed proipa,gianda a,pparatus, told the world that CSR meant Czecho-Slovak Repulblic, but to the Ozechs it ailways did mean Czech Soc ial ist Republic. Adding one more S" to the aibbre'Via<ted furm reaiH,y changed nothirug, ex:cept perhaps to have CSSR read: OZE• liigion or ,go to the Saicraiments. Slovak teachers who attend Mass are blaclclisted and ultimately replaced. "'IlHEY NiEViER HAID IT SO GOOD" is continued to be used by the Czechs in reference to the Slovaks. Nothing has changed in this regard: Masa,cyk a,nd Benes used the e:,cpression before the Czech Reds took over. ]n eastern Slo,v akia, however, accordring to the communist dai1ly RRiA.VlDA, peoiple 'look in vain for chlildren's wear, ladies underthings, and furORD-SOVIET SOOiiA[.JSf!' REPUB- nitmre; chocofate candy, too, is LIC. The Slovaks have n-0 voice. ra,reLy found in, the stores. 11 AlN A'I10MIC HESEAIRCH CEINRED PRIAGll.JE blows hot and 'I1ER was recen1tlry set up by Czech cold on Israel. I1: used to f.Ull'nish a,tomic ®ecialists in Rez, a villa;ge just north of Praig,ue. 'I1he project wa's under the directi.on atomdc specialists. o,£ Russi-an Czech techniciws M"e being trained by the Soviet Russian engineer Roonanov. Thus far some eiighty lai,ge buildings hav-e been built; nearing coonpletion i s a radrio-chemical research institute which is 140 meters 1-ong. 1 Israel with weapons and m11.mitions; a[so toohnici,a ns. Then it held odif support for a while. Now the Czech Red'S have odifered Israeli authorities data on the Eichmann case to emlbarrass and discredit Gerunan,y and its people in the eyes of the world. Tlhe old Czech game of duplicity never ends. . WiHiAT H.AiPiPIIDNm to the so" " "' 'IlHlE BRI.ATISLA.1\7A RJAD[O, on catlled ''Council of Free CzechosloNovemlber 17, related about the vadcia"? Ax:cording to t,h e Czechs prdblem of gara,ges, revea'1ing that themsie1'ves, it foH apart soone there were no mor,e than 300 au- months a•go when adl but representos i,n Kosice, the second 1-ai,gest tatives of the Czech Nazis wandoned it. J. Lett.rich, Fr. Nemec,. city in Slovakia. R. Frastaoky, Fedor Hodza, Ste• • • 'IlHJE CZECH REDS in~st thait. phen Osusky, J . Cerny, J. Mrazek,. aill teachers in Slovakia break with A. Heidrich, A. Prochazlm, V. Ma-the Cathollic Ohurch and becoone I jer, aind V. Fedinec alleged[,y quit the chief propagators of atheism. 1the outfit because they were fed' Their childtren must not study re- wp wtllth Dr. Peter Zenkl's dicta<to- 2 SLOVAKIA rial condluct. After Dr. Hulbert Riiipka's death, Dr. Zenkil was regarded as No. 1 representaltive Olf the late Dr. Edward Benes' Czech National Socia,list ~Czech Nazi) Party. tics, 638,516 people owned regular radio sets in 1960, whJ1le 74,778 people had "wired" broadcasts. The population o,f Sloivakia is over the four mi1b!Jio·n m'a rk. DR. m'I1E)R ZElNlKIL s~gned the recerut memorandtliIIl Olf the OFC anent the forced eJQPU!lsion Olf the Sudeten Germans, a<Xording to which the Czechs under Zenkl declare that the "Gemna,n question" Olf Czecho.SloV'alcia is forever settled. The memo caused quite a stir in West Germany and a:lso aimong exiJe growps in the USA. Dr. Zemel happens to be the chairma,n Olf the Aissemfbliy oif Captive European Nlabions organization, so the memo Olf the OFC casts a darlk shadoiw over the latter. This is deeply resented by the represenltati<ves of the other exiQe growps oif AIOEN. The No. 1, Czech Nazi's days as chairman oif ACEN defrnitelry seem to be numlbered. "SIU'N[)!AJY NIEIE(I) NlOT BE ON SUINIDAIY," accordin,g to the Bratislav,a 'PRAOA' 'oif Novel!lllber 27. Czech Reds tel11 the Slovaks tha-t the work week wiU be shortened from 48 to 40 hours, BIUT quotas must be met. In other words : what can be done in. 48 hours, IDJUst be done in 40. When the chanige will cOIIIle, however, no one see<rns to know. "A da\Y Olf rest," says the Red mouthpiece,- "can be any day, no't necessarily Sunday, a,nd when the Party orders the people to work on Slunday, the(Y must work on Sunday." Obv<iouslry, the Reds wihl never quirt fighting religion. The vast madority oif Slovak.s are Catholic; they want to go to church on Sund!ay, but the Reds say: the Party comes first! OCTOOER 4, 1960, marked the bi..cen'tennial oif the birth oif the great Slovak ,patriot Alexander Cardinal Rudnay who wHl always be rememlbered :fior his expres,. sion: "I aim a Slovak, and I shall remaJn a Slovak even ilf I occwpy the chalir oif Peter!" Born in Svaty Kriz nad VahOIIIl, Slovakia, October 4, 1760, Cardinal Rudnaiy died Sepbemiber IB, 11831. THIE 60 BUSIES of Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, are equirprped with radio receivers, the "Praca" paper Olf Biratisl:a,va informs its readers. It adds, however, that soonebod\Y is qutite negligent, because the radios that function can be C01U,nited on the firugers Olf one hand. I!N SLOVAlIGA the people are bei'll!g heavily lectured on the ''conlfllict between science and reliigion." The Red;s under the tutetage oif Moscow must prove to the Slov~s thait ".r,elilgion is necessacy on,1,y for the weak, the strong do not need it." 'I1hat's 1ike tehlillJg the Slovaks they do not need s.clt! • • • .BRAYIERiBOOKS are ndt avail- alble for the people Olf Slovakia. Almeri-can cousins have been anS1Wering the caMs for more, but the Ozech Red regime began to stamp· the Heims "not allowed" and returned them to the senders. Now we learn tha.t the Redis decided to pr:init a111d sell prayerbooks to Slovaks in the USA to get more Almericam, $$$. Now they tell the Slovaks that the short• AOCORDIING TO od'lficial startis- a,g e oif prayerbook!s is caused by SLOVAKIA American .iJmiperiaHsts. The Reds and are don't miss a trielk constantly thinking up new ones to deceive and coruf.use their slaves. • • • R.AID[O FREE EUROBE has re- organized ills "Czec'ho-Sllo,v ak" unirt in Munich, firing 18 emp}oyoos: Bena,, Koditun, Kuihanek, Eriban, Meloun, Schneider, Pejslmr, Suda, Stolick,a, Schott, Sklilbova, Vanek (-a,H Czechs); and Bel"ger-Belak, Kovac, Petrovic, Kr,uxliak, Sepiilk:o, and Steifaneik (Slovaks). Jit seems thart A,merican '"l1R'UTH DOULJAlRS" have caused a lot of people to stra,y from the truth, and we don't necessard1y mean any of those fired either. Let's see how man.y fomner ~ emploiyees spied for the Red Czech's? THIE OAIUSE of the latest wholesaJe dismissail has been zeatlously kept from the notice of America,n s who paiy the biUs for the muliti-miHion-dohlar RIAIDIO FRi0E EUROOE organization. Now we have it from our Munich source that the aibove were fired because they were among the 28 Slovak and Czech employees who had dared to protest agalinst the appointment of one Osiwa:ld Kositrlb1a as head of the Czecho-Sfovak section by the boss of RIFE's opera.ti'n,g center in Munich, Eric Hazeilhoif. When the smoke deared, Hazelhof was forced to resign, a-long with M. C. MaoNei4rl, the _pers0Tu11ell ,d irrector, anld David Penn, a politilcal conrsurlitant. The protest against Kosltrba charged that Kosrtroa• was not quaHfied• for the jolb, opposed to R'FIE's goals, and comrpromi'sed by strorug pro-COIIIllmundst contacts which da;ted bacik to the war and Dr. Benes' espiona,g•e 3 outfit. Kostr;ba, the protesrtors clalirned, was assocfated with L. Freund (Frejka), a communisit agent later executed by the Czech Reds Ln, the Slansiky trial (:1952), and wiith one Mr. Frenzel', a Bavarian deputy recentI,y arrested by the Bavarian poHce fur his connection with the Kostrlba gro,uip. lit is not a secrelt that wilthin the past four or five years more than a dozen of the R'FIE's Czech staff embarrassed its sponsor by defecting to the Ea,s t and then, vi.liif~n,g them from Radfo Pralgue. In 195:8 one F. Machacek jumped the curain. Two y,e ars earlier, the Frenth poHce had repo1'1ed· him as an enemy a,gent, but the RJFIE stubbomil y insisted on retairrin,g him as irts Czech represenltatirve in Paris. The reward for exiposiirug Czech Red a•g ents in RJFlE: dismissa'1. MBlions of "Truth Dol'lars" coJilected from Americans by the Cruisad-e For 'Freedom went to the crusaders for slavecy. wm Amerkans ever learn? The least we can do: r~ ques,t Congress to investilgate Radio Free ffiuwpe and the other acrtivities of the Free Europe Coanmi ttee. OZEOH REOS seem to enjoy havin1g their country caHed "the arsena,l of the communiist wor.ld." Wearpon.s and munitions are going to Cwba, Red China, Laos, and the Africa,n counrtries. Technicians a'lso·. The Czechs seem to be the "chosen people" of Moscow. Mlasaryrk, a·n d Benes certainrly worked •~mirades" with the Czechs from 1918 to 194'8, makd•n g their natlion as Red as the bloody emipire olf Moscow. Fo·r thiSJ the United Sta•tes honored T. G. Ma&aryk with a "Champion Olf Lilberty" postage stamp. What mockery!  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c995ac72ffd390c31fa23e950875ebd2.pdf b522f6f9888fadcc7a71fbcf1a745668 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 4 NOTES FOR HISTORIANS J. G. KOHL AND THE SLOVAKS Constantine Culen Little ell!ough has been written about the Slovaks and their country outside of Sloviakia. But even less is known generally, even by Americans of Slovak descent, than has been made available :to English readers. Back in 1842, for ex.ample, a certain J. G. Kohl of England published five volumes under the title of "A Hundred Days in Austria," compris'ing an account of a tour througth Austri'a, Bohemiia, Hungary a:nd the then so-caUed "Mi1itary F'rcmtier." Two years later, in 1844, Mr. Kohl concluded his volume on Russia, containing hris remarks on Bulroviina, Galicia, and Moravia, which, ,as not referring iin any way to Russia, were omitted in t!he two fiirst parbs of the "Foreign Lib:riary, " but which, on account of t!heir intrinsic v,alue, he deemed a fitting sequel to !the Austrian tour. For the edifica.tion of our rreaders we are happy to reproduce parts of the volume (Chiapman and HaU, London, 1844) referring to the Slovaks and their country. lit may be well to note tJha)t Mr. Kohl, llike so many others before and after him, did not always cleair,ly dd.stli.nguish between the terms "Bohemian-Czech" and "HungarianMagyar." Nevertheless he did treat the Slovak as a distinct ethnic ent~ty. In Northern Germany, we understa,nd under the name of Aills• tr.ran every one ,w ho coones froon any part of the great AIUstr:ian conglomeration of lands, (Pr<>'Vi<led: he speaks German; bU't every weH-educated Bohemian, Hiungacian, Oroatiian, or Slovak, speaiks our language quite as well as do the people of Vienna or Sty,ria. - (p. 79). It is not Esterthaz ,b ut the t0rw.n, of Eisenstadt, which is -the chieif seat of the Esterhaey government. At the latter •town is the centraloiifice of admini-straitdon for arH the vast esta•tes, extending hence to the other side of the Pl:a-bten. Lake, as weH as nor.t'hrwaro into the Slowack cournti,y. Each of the territories or lordships is admimistered by a 1presiden.t, residing in Eisenstadt, and ifOON" counse!JJ.ors. The ,great mass of the estates i,s divided into five distrlirots, to each of which a prefeot i·s appointed, and so emensiive are thes-e, tha,t a prefect :has often to tra,vel two days to ,get dlroon one end of his district to bhe other. Under the orefects aga-in .are the directors for each single estate, with their renbmasters, stewards, agenrts, etc. �SLOVAKIA 5 Some of the -e states lha,ve .from twent,y to thirty vihlages and hamlets, and sometimes a: tow,n, of la,r ~er sdize. On the a,verage they contain about etght or ten. '11he ,o ldest castle of the IEsterhazys - their hereditar:y castl,e of Galantha, lies in the Slowack country, 1b ut the greater numlber as we11 as the langest and newest a'l"e alboiult the Neu'Siediler Lake. The ca,s tle of Eiise,nstad!t is celeboo:ted for it5 park, and its numerous treasures O!f. art. It is decorated on the outside wi!tih the busts od' Attila anid the leaders O!f. the Ma,gy,ars, - a sort o;f decoration noit wncormmon in the castles O!f. Hungary. - (rp. 178) ·M y esteemed cOODJpaniion was one of those !Hu1J1Jg,a rian literati who .p refer speaking Latin to any other 1,a,ruguage. He 1uS1Uiaill!y began by srpeaiking German, buit soon fel1l impercepti'bl!y into Latin, filnding it as he saii,d so muidh more convenient and better adaipted to coniversatwn tha·n any other tongue. He said th,a t he knew many literacy men to whom Lat,i n was by d'ar the most if.amilia·r, alith-0,u,gh on the ,whrue d1t had falle-n into disuse O!f. J,ate. He hilIIlselrf, as a Hungairian ipatriot, ipreferred· as a matter of principle, the ruse of tlhe nativ,e la,ng.uage, ,b ut when he wished to pour out hi•s heart he couild not he:lip usin,g Latin. Some, ,he said, carried their persecution of it to ,a pitch od' fonati:cism.. ''Et illts n,un,c ,pud!or est :Iaqu,i Latine, et vomnt ut canes nocturnd1 v,igHantes• Hu'Illgariae canant." With the hiuiman ,g uardians of •t he night, i,n, some !Hiungaa:-fa.n towru; where they ,h,a,v e ibeen in th•e haibit of ceyinJg tJhe hoUT fo German, this has rea,l]y ·b een requi'l"eld. [ inquired whether, as I had heard,, the ilrun!g,a rian ladies sipdke Latin, /but he said he never met <but one wlho was carpaible o:f doiirug s-0, and1 that ,wa,s a lady i£rom Presburg. 'I1h1e <Hun.ga,rian ma,gna-tes a'11 srpeak it, blUt the Slowacks are considered better and more fluent La-tinists than the IMaigy.ars. (.pp. 1191,192) The Slovaks are the prindpa,l dealers in linen, rwhiJCh they mamllfach.1ire themselves in the north-wester.n. parts o:f Hiurugary, bordertl.Jllg in Si:lesia and Mora,via, and this branch of indust ry has spread thence into other countries. As the Slov.aks a,r e the greatest manwfooburers, the Hungarians aire chiefl,y oocuipie<l i,n, the lbreed'i:n,g of ,c attle and horses; anid in the energy ,wti:t:h whic,h tlhey devote themselves to the latter, it wou[d seem as if they had not quite fongotten the a,n cient mode of 1iife O!f. their oforef.athers on the Asiatic st eppes. (p. 2'12) The 'Valleys and ,mountaiJi.s in Nortlhern Hungary, ,in,haibHed by the Slov,a'ks, likewise send out numerous colonists sourthward. Accord,i,n,g to ,t he rocotllllt of a native Hungarian aiuthor, "of aU the ionha,bitants of 'Hungary, they have the ,g reatest oind1ustroia,l skill, the most enengetic spirit of eruteroprise. Wherever they take root, they accordinglly soon s,up,I)lant and di'srplaice tJhe original ,inhalbitants, whether Gerunan,s or Magyars." There are in fact, nu·merO!U>s ex•aiffi· p'les of entire ·towns a,nd villaiges, onee solely iinihalbited by GeI\l'Iliam: and M!aigyars, bu,t now entir,el,y occupied by Slovaks . . . . the 1\fuoovwaini'S are found in ,g reat numbers· in Ru,ssia, and the O'. ey:ka[-oi (oi,Imerehants), Safra,nnitschi (sa1ii£r,on1brewers), P,J,atenniei (l.inen,dealers), gia$'lll'erehants, and wa,x--deal!ers, .iif they albound nowlhere else, albound a,t least, in an .parts of Hun,ga•r,y and G-aili~ia. (p. 3119) �6 SLOVAKIA In the laltter part of the above we have a sample of Mr. Kohl's falilure to distinquish clearly between Bohemiian and Slovak. Undoubtedly his reference was to Slovaks and not Bohemiians, because the fatter dlid not "abound in all parts of Hungary and Gal1oiia," whereas rtJhe SloV'aks did. The noble -a nd !,earned Huiruga<ri-an ,priiesfs Ql()ok do,wn somewhait scornd'UJHy upon the sirrnpliicitty of their reforuned- ibrethren. It dis soonewhait duiforent wi'th the Lutherans in the Slovak count:r,y. These Jiv-e in all'Other and very dissimilla<r spiTi:tua,l elemen:t. I wa,s assiUTed by many en~ightened Catholics, that talken on the whole, the Protestants 'in Hungax,y were far more in1tolerant than t he Oa,tholics. "H never occurs to a Ca,tho1ic," sa,i d they, ",to i,n,q,uire after a stran· g,e r's re1igio,us belief, which a iPirotestant WO'I.Jlld do Jimrrnediately; the Protestants keep much .t01gether, arud are far more exc1usive than the Caitholics." A lad,y assured me thait a'lthough she had been broUJght UIP in a convent, she ·h ad never tiJl her eilghteenth ryear known any dilierence betwen .Protestaruts -a nd Oatholiics: the folimer bancDy the ,r eproach of heresy amongst each other cfar mor,e tJhan the Ca,tholics do towards them. I give these rerrnaJI"ikiS as t•hey were made to me, ha,vinig ha:d no exiperience ,on the sUJbject m:yseLf; so much, !however, [ must say th1a,t no question respecbi1rug my reli.giou:s faith, was ever .pUJt to rrne, go where [ wowd. (p. 359) The Slovacks igener,a,Hy a·r e hand:sOIIDe; I have never seen a ifiner re~ent than the Slovack infantry rreig-irrnent, with respect to carria,g,e, form and mar,tia'1 exipression od' countenance. - (p. 380). 1 Undoubtedly other visitor,s to Hungary, particularly to Northern Hunga:ry w.here lthe SloV'aks h·a d settled way back in the 7-8-t!h centuries, wrote about it.he Slovaks and their land. Their impressions ·a nd observiations for the most part are probably ,recorded in documents covered wit!h dust in the varioUJS archives and 1ilbv8i~ies of the old world and -p ossibly even of the new wo'I'1d. Until some inquisi!tive ,a nd searching scholars come upon them, we slral!l have to rest satisfied with the sour,ces open to us which clearly prove 1:Jhat the Slovaks are ,a distinct etlmic entity . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and death . . . the idea of being united with the Soviet Union for life and death is the most importMit priniei:ple of our foreign policy, whether any one likes it or not. No government can afford to pursue anti~Soviet politics. That would be a policy .o f suicide, and the government pursuing it would (Ferdinand Peroutka, a be destroyed by the people." 12-31-47). DNESEK, Czech, Benes � SLOVAKIA 4 NOTES FOR HISTORIANS J. G. KOHL AND THE SLOVAKS Constantine Culen Little ell!ough has been written about the Slovaks and their country outside of Sloviakia. But even less is known generally, even by Americans of Slovak descent, than has been made available :to English readers. Back in 1842, for ex.ample, a certain J. G. Kohl of England published five volumes under the title of "A Hundred Days in Austria," compris'ing an account of a tour througth Austri'a, Bohemiia, Hungary a:nd the then so-caUed "Mi1itary F'rcmtier." Two years later, in 1844, Mr. Kohl concluded his volume on Russia, containing hris remarks on Bulroviina, Galicia, and Moravia, which, ,as not referring iin any way to Russia, were omitted in t!he two fiirst parbs of the "Foreign Lib:riary, " but which, on account of t!heir intrinsic v,alue, he deemed a fitting sequel to !the Austrian tour. For the edifica.tion of our rreaders we are happy to reproduce parts of the volume (Chiapman and HaU, London, 1844) referring to the Slovaks and their country. lit may be well to note tJha)t Mr. Kohl, llike so many others before and after him, did not always cleair,ly dd.stli.nguish between the terms "Bohemian-Czech" and "HungarianMagyar." Nevertheless he did treat the Slovak as a distinct ethnic ent~ty. In Northern Germany, we understa,nd under the name of Aills• tr.ran every one ,w ho coones froon any part of the great AIUstr:ian conglomeration of lands, (Pr<>'Vi<led: he speaks German; bU't every weH-educated Bohemian, Hiungacian, Oroatiian, or Slovak, speaiks our language quite as well as do the people of Vienna or Sty,ria. - (p. 79). It is not Esterthaz ,b ut the t0rw.n, of Eisenstadt, which is -the chieif seat of the Esterhaey government. At the latter •town is the centraloiifice of admini-straitdon for arH the vast esta•tes, extending hence to the other side of the Pl:a-bten. Lake, as weH as nor.t'hrwaro into the Slowack cournti,y. Each of the territories or lordships is admimistered by a 1presiden.t, residing in Eisenstadt, and ifOON" counse!JJ.ors. The ,great mass of the estates i,s divided into five distrlirots, to each of which a prefeot i·s appointed, and so emensiive are thes-e, tha,t a prefect :has often to tra,vel two days to ,get dlroon one end of his district to bhe other. Under the orefects aga-in .are the directors for each single estate, with their renbmasters, stewards, agenrts, etc. �SLOVAKIA 5 Some of the -e states lha,ve .from twent,y to thirty vihlages and hamlets, and sometimes a: tow,n, of la,r ~er sdize. On the a,verage they contain about etght or ten. '11he ,o ldest castle of the IEsterhazys - their hereditar:y castl,e of Galantha, lies in the Slowack country, 1b ut the greater numlber as we11 as the langest and newest a'l"e alboiult the Neu'Siediler Lake. The ca,s tle of Eiise,nstad!t is celeboo:ted for it5 park, and its numerous treasures O!f. art. It is decorated on the outside wi!tih the busts od' Attila anid the leaders O!f. the Ma,gy,ars, - a sort o;f decoration noit wncormmon in the castles O!f. Hungary. - (rp. 178) ·M y esteemed cOODJpaniion was one of those !Hu1J1Jg,a rian literati who .p refer speaking Latin to any other 1,a,ruguage. He 1uS1Uiaill!y began by srpeaiking German, buit soon fel1l impercepti'bl!y into Latin, filnding it as he saii,d so muidh more convenient and better adaipted to coniversatwn tha·n any other tongue. He said th,a t he knew many literacy men to whom Lat,i n was by d'ar the most if.amilia·r, alith-0,u,gh on the ,whrue d1t had falle-n into disuse O!f. J,ate. He hilIIlselrf, as a Hungairian ipatriot, ipreferred· as a matter of principle, the ruse of tlhe nativ,e la,ng.uage, ,b ut when he wished to pour out hi•s heart he couild not he:lip usin,g Latin. Some, ,he said, carried their persecution of it to ,a pitch od' fonati:cism.. ''Et illts n,un,c ,pud!or est :Iaqu,i Latine, et vomnt ut canes nocturnd1 v,igHantes• Hu'Illgariae canant." With the hiuiman ,g uardians of •t he night, i,n, some !Hiungaa:-fa.n towru; where they ,h,a,v e ibeen in th•e haibit of ceyinJg tJhe hoUT fo German, this has rea,l]y ·b een requi'l"eld. [ inquired whether, as I had heard,, the ilrun!g,a rian ladies sipdke Latin, /but he said he never met <but one wlho was carpaible o:f doiirug s-0, and1 that ,wa,s a lady i£rom Presburg. 'I1h1e <Hun.ga,rian ma,gna-tes a'11 srpeak it, blUt the Slowacks are considered better and more fluent La-tinists than the IMaigy.ars. (.pp. 1191,192) The Slovaks are the prindpa,l dealers in linen, rwhiJCh they mamllfach.1ire themselves in the north-wester.n. parts o:f Hiurugary, bordertl.Jllg in Si:lesia and Mora,via, and this branch of indust ry has spread thence into other countries. As the Slov.aks a,r e the greatest manwfooburers, the Hungarians aire chiefl,y oocuipie<l i,n, the lbreed'i:n,g of ,c attle and horses; anid in the energy ,wti:t:h whic,h tlhey devote themselves to the latter, it wou[d seem as if they had not quite fongotten the a,n cient mode of 1iife O!f. their oforef.athers on the Asiatic st eppes. (p. 2'12) The 'Valleys and ,mountaiJi.s in Nortlhern Hungary, ,in,haibHed by the Slov,a'ks, likewise send out numerous colonists sourthward. Accord,i,n,g to ,t he rocotllllt of a native Hungarian aiuthor, "of aU the ionha,bitants of 'Hungary, they have the ,g reatest oind1ustroia,l skill, the most enengetic spirit of eruteroprise. Wherever they take root, they accordinglly soon s,up,I)lant and di'srplaice tJhe original ,inhalbitants, whether Gerunan,s or Magyars." There are in fact, nu·merO!U>s ex•aiffi· p'les of entire ·towns a,nd villaiges, onee solely iinihalbited by GeI\l'Iliam: and M!aigyars, bu,t now entir,el,y occupied by Slovaks . . . . the 1\fuoovwaini'S are found in ,g reat numbers· in Ru,ssia, and the O'. ey:ka[-oi (oi,Imerehants), Safra,nnitschi (sa1ii£r,on1brewers), P,J,atenniei (l.inen,dealers), gia$'lll'erehants, and wa,x--deal!ers, .iif they albound nowlhere else, albound a,t least, in an .parts of Hun,ga•r,y and G-aili~ia. (p. 3119) �6 SLOVAKIA In the laltter part of the above we have a sample of Mr. Kohl's falilure to distinquish clearly between Bohemiian and Slovak. Undoubtedly his reference was to Slovaks and not Bohemiians, because the fatter dlid not "abound in all parts of Hungary and Gal1oiia," whereas rtJhe SloV'aks did. The noble -a nd !,earned Huiruga<ri-an ,priiesfs Ql()ok do,wn somewhait scornd'UJHy upon the sirrnpliicitty of their reforuned- ibrethren. It dis soonewhait duiforent wi'th the Lutherans in the Slovak count:r,y. These Jiv-e in all'Other and very dissimilla<r spiTi:tua,l elemen:t. I wa,s assiUTed by many en~ightened Catholics, that talken on the whole, the Protestants 'in Hungax,y were far more in1tolerant than t he Oa,tholics. "H never occurs to a Ca,tho1ic," sa,i d they, ",to i,n,q,uire after a stran· g,e r's re1igio,us belief, which a iPirotestant WO'I.Jlld do Jimrrnediately; the Protestants keep much .t01gether, arud are far more exc1usive than the Caitholics." A lad,y assured me thait a'lthough she had been broUJght UIP in a convent, she ·h ad never tiJl her eilghteenth ryear known any dilierence betwen .Protestaruts -a nd Oatholiics: the folimer bancDy the ,r eproach of heresy amongst each other cfar mor,e tJhan the Ca,tholics do towards them. I give these rerrnaJI"ikiS as t•hey were made to me, ha,vinig ha:d no exiperience ,on the sUJbject m:yseLf; so much, !however, [ must say th1a,t no question respecbi1rug my reli.giou:s faith, was ever .pUJt to rrne, go where [ wowd. (p. 359) The Slovacks igener,a,Hy a·r e hand:sOIIDe; I have never seen a ifiner re~ent than the Slovack infantry rreig-irrnent, with respect to carria,g,e, form and mar,tia'1 exipression od' countenance. - (p. 380). 1 Undoubtedly other visitor,s to Hungary, particularly to Northern Hunga:ry w.here lthe SloV'aks h·a d settled way back in the 7-8-t!h centuries, wrote about it.he Slovaks and their land. Their impressions ·a nd observiations for the most part are probably ,recorded in documents covered wit!h dust in the varioUJS archives and 1ilbv8i~ies of the old world and -p ossibly even of the new wo'I'1d. Until some inquisi!tive ,a nd searching scholars come upon them, we slral!l have to rest satisfied with the sour,ces open to us which clearly prove 1:Jhat the Slovaks are ,a distinct etlmic entity . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and death . . . the idea of being united with the Soviet Union for life and death is the most importMit priniei:ple of our foreign policy, whether any one likes it or not. No government can afford to pursue anti~Soviet politics. That would be a policy .o f suicide, and the government pursuing it would (Ferdinand Peroutka, a be destroyed by the people." 12-31-47). DNESEK, Czech, Benes � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 4 NOTES FOR HISTORIANS J. G. KOHL AND THE SLOVAKS Constantine Culen Little ell!ough has been written about the Slovaks and their country outside of Sloviakia. But even less is known generally, even by Americans of Slovak descent, than has been made available :to English readers. Back in 1842, for ex.ample, a certain J. G. Kohl of England published five volumes under the title of "A Hundred Days in Austria," compris'ing an account of a tour througth Austri'a, Bohemiia, Hungary a:nd the then so-caUed "Mi1itary F'rcmtier." Two years later, in 1844, Mr. Kohl concluded his volume on Russia, containing hris remarks on Bulroviina, Galicia, and Moravia, which, ,as not referring iin any way to Russia, were omitted in t!he two fiirst parbs of the "Foreign Lib:riary, " but which, on account of t!heir intrinsic v,alue, he deemed a fitting sequel to !the Austrian tour. For the edifica.tion of our rreaders we are happy to reproduce parts of the volume (Chiapman and HaU, London, 1844) referring to the Slovaks and their country. lit may be well to note tJha)t Mr. Kohl, llike so many others before and after him, did not always cleair,ly dd.stli.nguish between the terms "Bohemian-Czech" and "HungarianMagyar." Nevertheless he did treat the Slovak as a distinct ethnic ent~ty. In Northern Germany, we understa,nd under the name of Aills• tr.ran every one ,w ho coones froon any part of the great AIUstr:ian conglomeration of lands, (Pr<>'Vi<led: he speaks German; bU't every weH-educated Bohemian, Hiungacian, Oroatiian, or Slovak, speaiks our language quite as well as do the people of Vienna or Sty,ria. - (p. 79). It is not Esterthaz ,b ut the t0rw.n, of Eisenstadt, which is -the chieif seat of the Esterhaey government. At the latter •town is the centraloiifice of admini-straitdon for arH the vast esta•tes, extending hence to the other side of the Pl:a-bten. Lake, as weH as nor.t'hrwaro into the Slowack cournti,y. Each of the territories or lordships is admimistered by a 1presiden.t, residing in Eisenstadt, and ifOON" counse!JJ.ors. The ,great mass of the estates i,s divided into five distrlirots, to each of which a prefeot i·s appointed, and so emensiive are thes-e, tha,t a prefect :has often to tra,vel two days to ,get dlroon one end of his district to bhe other. Under the orefects aga-in .are the directors for each single estate, with their renbmasters, stewards, agenrts, etc. SLOVAKIA 5 Some of the -e states lha,ve .from twent,y to thirty vihlages and hamlets, and sometimes a: tow,n, of la,r ~er sdize. On the a,verage they contain about etght or ten. '11he ,o ldest castle of the IEsterhazys - their hereditar:y castl,e of Galantha, lies in the Slowack country, 1b ut the greater numlber as we11 as the langest and newest a'l"e alboiult the Neu'Siediler Lake. The ca,s tle of Eiise,nstad!t is celeboo:ted for it5 park, and its numerous treasures O!f. art. It is decorated on the outside wi!tih the busts od' Attila anid the leaders O!f. the Ma,gy,ars, - a sort o;f decoration noit wncormmon in the castles O!f. Hungary. - (rp. 178) ·M y esteemed cOODJpaniion was one of those !Hu1J1Jg,a rian literati who .p refer speaking Latin to any other 1,a,ruguage. He 1uS1Uiaill!y began by srpeaiking German, buit soon fel1l impercepti'bl!y into Latin, filnding it as he saii,d so muidh more convenient and better adaipted to coniversatwn tha·n any other tongue. He said th,a t he knew many literacy men to whom Lat,i n was by d'ar the most if.amilia·r, alith-0,u,gh on the ,whrue d1t had falle-n into disuse O!f. J,ate. He hilIIlselrf, as a Hungairian ipatriot, ipreferred· as a matter of principle, the ruse of tlhe nativ,e la,ng.uage, ,b ut when he wished to pour out hi•s heart he couild not he:lip usin,g Latin. Some, ,he said, carried their persecution of it to ,a pitch od' fonati:cism.. ''Et illts n,un,c ,pud!or est :Iaqu,i Latine, et vomnt ut canes nocturnd1 v,igHantes• Hu'Illgariae canant." With the hiuiman ,g uardians of •t he night, i,n, some !Hiungaa:-fa.n towru; where they ,h,a,v e ibeen in th•e haibit of ceyinJg tJhe hoUT fo German, this has rea,l]y ·b een requi'l"eld. [ inquired whether, as I had heard,, the ilrun!g,a rian ladies sipdke Latin, /but he said he never met <but one wlho was carpaible o:f doiirug s-0, and1 that ,wa,s a lady i£rom Presburg. 'I1h1e <Hun.ga,rian ma,gna-tes a'11 srpeak it, blUt the Slowacks are considered better and more fluent La-tinists than the IMaigy.ars. (.pp. 1191,192) The Slovaks are the prindpa,l dealers in linen, rwhiJCh they mamllfach.1ire themselves in the north-wester.n. parts o:f Hiurugary, bordertl.Jllg in Si:lesia and Mora,via, and this branch of indust ry has spread thence into other countries. As the Slov.aks a,r e the greatest manwfooburers, the Hungarians aire chiefl,y oocuipie<l i,n, the lbreed'i:n,g of ,c attle and horses; anid in the energy ,wti:t:h whic,h tlhey devote themselves to the latter, it wou[d seem as if they had not quite fongotten the a,n cient mode of 1iife O!f. their oforef.athers on the Asiatic st eppes. (p. 2'12) The 'Valleys and ,mountaiJi.s in Nortlhern Hungary, ,in,haibHed by the Slov,a'ks, likewise send out numerous colonists sourthward. Accord,i,n,g to ,t he rocotllllt of a native Hungarian aiuthor, "of aU the ionha,bitants of 'Hungary, they have the ,g reatest oind1ustroia,l skill, the most enengetic spirit of eruteroprise. Wherever they take root, they accordinglly soon s,up,I)lant and di'srplaice tJhe original ,inhalbitants, whether Gerunan,s or Magyars." There are in fact, nu·merO!U>s ex•aiffi· p'les of entire ·towns a,nd villaiges, onee solely iinihalbited by GeI\l'Iliam: and M!aigyars, bu,t now entir,el,y occupied by Slovaks . . . . the 1\fuoovwaini'S are found in ,g reat numbers· in Ru,ssia, and the O'. ey:ka[-oi (oi,Imerehants), Safra,nnitschi (sa1ii£r,on1brewers), P,J,atenniei (l.inen,dealers), gia$'lll'erehants, and wa,x--deal!ers, .iif they albound nowlhere else, albound a,t least, in an .parts of Hun,ga•r,y and G-aili~ia. (p. 3119) 6 SLOVAKIA In the laltter part of the above we have a sample of Mr. Kohl's falilure to distinquish clearly between Bohemiian and Slovak. Undoubtedly his reference was to Slovaks and not Bohemiians, because the fatter dlid not "abound in all parts of Hungary and Gal1oiia," whereas rtJhe SloV'aks did. The noble -a nd !,earned Huiruga<ri-an ,priiesfs Ql()ok do,wn somewhait scornd'UJHy upon the sirrnpliicitty of their reforuned- ibrethren. It dis soonewhait duiforent wi'th the Lutherans in the Slovak count:r,y. These Jiv-e in all'Other and very dissimilla<r spiTi:tua,l elemen:t. I wa,s assiUTed by many en~ightened Catholics, that talken on the whole, the Protestants 'in Hungax,y were far more in1tolerant than t he Oa,tholics. "H never occurs to a Ca,tho1ic," sa,i d they, ",to i,n,q,uire after a stran· g,e r's re1igio,us belief, which a iPirotestant WO'I.Jlld do Jimrrnediately; the Protestants keep much .t01gether, arud are far more exc1usive than the Caitholics." A lad,y assured me thait a'lthough she had been broUJght UIP in a convent, she ·h ad never tiJl her eilghteenth ryear known any dilierence betwen .Protestaruts -a nd Oatholiics: the folimer bancDy the ,r eproach of heresy amongst each other cfar mor,e tJhan the Ca,tholics do towards them. I give these rerrnaJI"ikiS as t•hey were made to me, ha,vinig ha:d no exiperience ,on the sUJbject m:yseLf; so much, !however, [ must say th1a,t no question respecbi1rug my reli.giou:s faith, was ever .pUJt to rrne, go where [ wowd. (p. 359) The Slovacks igener,a,Hy a·r e hand:sOIIDe; I have never seen a ifiner re~ent than the Slovack infantry rreig-irrnent, with respect to carria,g,e, form and mar,tia'1 exipression od' countenance. - (p. 380). 1 Undoubtedly other visitor,s to Hungary, particularly to Northern Hunga:ry w.here lthe SloV'aks h·a d settled way back in the 7-8-t!h centuries, wrote about it.he Slovaks and their land. Their impressions ·a nd observiations for the most part are probably ,recorded in documents covered wit!h dust in the varioUJS archives and 1ilbv8i~ies of the old world and -p ossibly even of the new wo'I'1d. Until some inquisi!tive ,a nd searching scholars come upon them, we slral!l have to rest satisfied with the sour,ces open to us which clearly prove 1:Jhat the Slovaks are ,a distinct etlmic entity . • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and death . . . the idea of being united with the Soviet Union for life and death is the most importMit priniei:ple of our foreign policy, whether any one likes it or not. No government can afford to pursue anti~Soviet politics. That would be a policy .o f suicide, and the government pursuing it would (Ferdinand Peroutka, a be destroyed by the people." 12-31-47). DNESEK, Czech, Benes  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource J. G. Kohl and the Slovaks Description An account of the resource Constantine Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 4-6 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čulen, Konštantín, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3517a517ce57bab4b876f2fdea21c860.pdf c08cf7a50d76a857a2102c20249c84b1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 7 WAST. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK ORIGIN? P. A. Hrobak Many volumes have been written about Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, hi'S life, his concepts of r~lig,ion, history, philosophy, morals, etc. I1t is significant, however, that little has been written, even by Czechs themselves. about Masa,,ryk's ethnic origin. To be sure, tihe Czechs claim him as one of their greatest men. Accor<ling to what has been written about T. G. Masaryk, even by himself, he was, we are supposed to believe, aJt one and the same time, a Czech, a Slovak, and a "Czechoslovak." Then there is the story t!hat he wais of Jewish origin. The Slovak people did not regard Masaryk as their political or spiritual leader; he simply was not one of their kind. He did not believe in what tihe Sloviak people, as a who'le, believed in. That is why they did not !trust him. And when Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, whlch he himse•l f drafted and Sligned - an agreement that was supposed to guarantee "states' rights" to Slovakia - rtihey were through wi!th him. When the Slovaks criticized Masaryk, most severely and harshly on occasions, leading Cze~hs and the several Slovaks m their pay would rebuke them for doing so to one of their own countrymen, Masaryk, who was, they said, born a Sloviak. Nevertheless, this did not make Masaryk •a Slovak, not even a renegade Slovak, as far as the Slovaks were concerned. What then was the ethnic origin of Thomas Ga11rigue MaJSaryk? Strange as it might seem, the truth is that Masaryk himself never cleared up the question. Lecturing in Geneva, July 6, 1915, with Professor Ernest Denis, T. G. Masaryk said: "Our struggle ,i s being waged in t!he spirit of our Hussite forefathers and has not ,o nly political but also mora1 justification" (1). Toi his book "Svetova Revoluce" (the English translation of which was titled "The Making of a State"), we find 1Jhe following statements rel,a ting to Masaryk's ethnic origin: '"11he Slovaks a,nd Czechs knew that J moisel!f always had been ifor Slovakia; by origin and lby tra,d~tions a Slovak, I feel �8 SLOVAKIA S~ova!k a,n d I ai1ways not on]iy feLt a wa[lffith for SlolWl'ki:a, but woriked for it ... . I know Sloivaikia and the people dn Sl-0vadcia quite welil" (2). "Prapa,ganda, as everywtb.ere, so in America, iwas aimed to .acqua1nrt AIIIlerica with our politica,l and oul-turail tb.is't:or:y; rpeople knew a,bouit the Czechs -and the former Czech kingdoon, bwt we h,a,d· t•rouible wiith 1Jhe Slovaks; they were unilmOWU'll and Americans found iit diffiouH to understand that they forun a part of our nat,ion"(3). "From childhood I d'e~t my Czech nature concretely in the und'er•s tandinig of 'the character, the vdews and ,Hfe of my COl\lllllt,e ymen i,n S!Jovacko (Slovalk ian Moravia and hn, Slovakia)) aind wi1h 1Jhe coUTse of time in Moravia and Bohemia. . . . I feel my Czech and Slovak nature, I would saiy, l'IUsbroailly, dia•l ectically; phi'liosQll)hicailliy I feel with Hus, Chelcicky, Zifilc•a, etc., UJP to Ha·vlicek"(4). But the same Masaryk also salid: "Our policy must be above all else Czech, in truth Czech, then it wiU be in truth a world policy and therefore also Slovanic" (5). And despite his many •a ssurances to the Slovaks during World WaJr I lthat he was a Slovak by birth ('he needed them to establish the Czecho.,Slovak State), T. G. Masaryk nevertheless declared at the Baris Peace Conference: "The Slovaks are Czechs and their language is but a dialect of the Czech language!" Dr. E·dward Benes supported Masa,ryk'is statement. Accoroing to the Czec.fu newspaper "Narod" (6), Masaryk had this to say about his mother rund father: "Mly father was a native of ~opcany ... my mother was from Hostopec, a Geriman coomnunity. . . . I think that I am a1C1C-0rd ing to blood a pure Slovak, withowt admi<lctu'l'es of Maigy,ar or German, even, though j_n my youth my matJher cO'U!ld SDeark better in Ger,marn than in Czech ... we pr~ed ,in German." 0 Professor Hans Kohn, generally regarded as a reliable historian, tells us that T.he greatest statesman of latter-<fa~ Aiustria, ·t he Czech ptb.ilosopher ThOm"as G. Masany{k, h-adi a foHowin,g of onJy a, .few int~lilectual's amo'lllg his own !PeQll)le. Born at the Czecho•S'llovak _b order, he tried to lbud·l d -a ,b ridge ifroon the progressive Czechs, who made foH use of the OIPIJOrtunHrl.es of free dev,elopprrnenlt in Austri'a, to the backward Slovaks to whom, under Malgy,air d-omlina,ti-on, n-0 such opportwni1ti,es were given"(7). "Thomas G. MasaJrY'k, a Moravian Slovak" ... "the s•o n of a Slovak terumster on an ,ilmperiial estate in Eastern Slovakia, Masa,cyk was born (11850)"(8) ... "The Czechs were able to build 1Jheir existence, UJruder the leadership of Paladky's diroiipl,e, Masacy,k, the liberaitor of the Czech nation, on these principles .... �SLOVAKIA AH of Ma,sacyk's wr1tmgs atbou,t the Czech proiblean, his 9 CESKA O'I'A2KA, and his bookls on Hus and on Karel Ha!V'licek are indebted to Plal!acky's conception of Czech histoey (9). Professor S. Harrison Thomson of Colorado University, whose book "Czechoslovakia in European History" (10) won him 1Jhe Czecho-Slovak State prize for li,tJerature in 1944 - ait a ti'me when that State did not faduaHy exist also had some difficulty in esta:blishing Masaryk's ethnic idenltity: ''Thomas Garr.itgue Masaicyk was ibor:n in t850 in Moravia, the son of a Slovak .futher and a Moravian mother"(lll). . . " By b1ood and tem'Perament Masaryk was as much Slovak as Czech'~(12) ... "To Masaryk, himself perhaps more Slovak than Czech, ,s uch a united effort (of Slova'1~s and Ozechs) .had been a self-evident neeessi-ty from the begiJming of the war"{13). Otto's Encyclopedia(14), pulblished eighteen years before Czecho-Slovalda was created, finds nothing Sfovak or "Czechoslovak" a'b out T. G. Masaryk, stating simply that he was :a "Czech philosopher." Robert J. Kerner, of Czech origin and a 'Sather Professor of Hrstory ,ait the Ull!iversli.ty of California, remarked that "Masaryk, himself of Slovak parentage, inspired Slovak youth a't the (Prague) University" (15). And on one ocoasion, Masaryk told Capek bluntly: "For us Czechs, Catholicism is ,a n impossible doctrine" ( 16). Dr. Joseph S. Roucek, professor at the Univwsity of Bridgeport, however, had a bit more to say: 1 "Mlasary{k, Tho1mas Garr.rilgiue (1~19371), Czechoslovak philosopher and statesmain, born on March 7. 1850, in tHodonliln on the Miorarvian-Slovakian border, of a Slovak father and a Czech mother'' . . . ''Afread,y as a stmd!ent e~pressed Ms strong Czec•h patriotism and h1is 01PPosition to soone of the db~s of the Oatholic Church into which he ,was born" . . . "The next yea.r (i:8'19, he) •beicame Pr,ivat-d!ozerut at the University of Vrienna and professor of philo'sophy at the Czech uruiversit:y Olf Prague (1882)" ... ''Turned to the great poiritilool and sooiJa,l problems of his da,y and became the naitionail ediuciat·OT Olf the Young Czech intelli!gents~ai" ... 'IHi:s cru&ad-e for truth led him to oppose the Czech romaintic nationaliSllll".. . ''Increased hi:s unpoipulacicy when he took uip the defense of mlsner, a Jew ,aiccused, of 'ritual murder', aigain!lt the emotiona•l anti-semitism of the Czech masses (11900)"~17). After the death of Masaryk, in September 1937, the Bratislava newspaper "Slovak" noted: "Masacyk was born in Hodonin, Moravia, March 7, 1850. !Es fuJtfuer, Joseph Masaryk, was a coach-<lriver on one of the Habsburg estates. Theresa Kropacek was his mother." �10 SLOVAKIA When Dr. Alice G. Masaryk, T. G. M.'s daughter, came ito Amerfoa in 1939 - her first visit here in twenltyeight years - she declined to describe herself as an ex,He, declaring "I am a Czech and Prague is my home" (18). Dr. W. Preston Warren, professor of phi1osophy rut Furman University in South Carolina, published his book "Masaryk's Democracy" in 1941 (19). Wit!h it he established himself as one of the foremost eulogists of Masaryk and his "Czechoslovakian" concept. That is understandable to informed people, because Dr. Warren is a charter member of the Masaryk Institute of America which, we are told, was founded "to promote cultural interchange between the Czechoslovak Republic and the United States." The fact remains, however, t!h at the Masaryk Institute promoted and still promotes the fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation and the personal philosophy and pa:rt'icu1ar in!terests of Thomas Ga:ririgue Masaryk and Dr. Edwaro Benes and their socialistic political entourage. 1 T. G. Masaryk, Dr. Warren teHs us, was "Born, 1850, in Hodonin, Moravia" (p. 3) .... "His father was a coachman with the background of a serf; his mother was a former Austrian household servant" (p. 4). That is alt Emil Ludwig published his book "Spirit and Time" (Oonvemations with Masaryk) in 1935, the 270-page book being read and approved before publication by Masaryk himself. In the book Ludwig tells us that Masaryk descends from Czechs and Slovaks and was born "in southern Moravia, near the border of both tribes." To Ludwig, Masaryk's character appears to be "typically Slovak" (p.14) and Masaryk himself told 1hirm: "Already as a child I was l>Hingual. My father was Slovak, my mother spoke German, but also Czech. Her parents were from Hana. I prayed in German, because my mother used to pray in Germ1a n from her German prayerbook" (p. 105). On the oocasion of -t he twen'bie!th anniversary of the death of T. G. Masaryk (Sept. 14, 1957) the Austri1an journals "Furche" and "Oberosterreichische" had this to say about the ethnic origin of Masaryk: �SLOVAKIA 11 "A nahve of Hana, Moravia, Masaryk's mother worked for sev,e ra·l years in Vienna before she became -a cook for a wea,l thy family in Hodonin. At fiirst she knew p,r,a~tiicaili!Jy nothing LI!; Czech and spoke with her chi1dren in the beginning only in Gerunan. Masaryk was recorded as a Geruna.n, in his ourrio1.11l'lllIIl v-itae orf ,1 875, which he hiim1selif wr.ote before attaindn•g his doctorate od' philosop'h'y at the University olf Vienna. '"Ilwo foicts are usua1.Jiy omdtted in the biographies of the president, and these he hlmselif, in his conversation with Oharles Capek, fails to menition: where his mother worked! as a cook in Hodonin., and, secondly, on w.hat day she was married dn 1849. It is easy to ascertain Wh\Y these facts are not mentioned, since the Hodonin Register shows !!hat she was imar-ried on Augiust 15, 18419, and that Mas.aryftc ,wa,g born on March 7', 18'50: between t:he marriage of the pa,re'I1its and the birth of yowng 'I1hiomas there are not even seven months. The mention of the,se dates coruld ea,sitly prolil/Pt the bhowght that the ,p res,i dent w,as born out of wedilock. ' 1On the other .hand a,ga,in, it is easy to ascertain just why the faimi)Jy for whom -Masaryk's mother ,coolked is never mentioned: The fact is that Masaryik's mother worked as a cook for a certa·Ll'a wealthy meflchant of Hodonin who owned ihl,s own miU and quite a ,piece of land. This merchant was the graindfabher of the world •r enowned Austrian historian and politician Joseph :Riedl1ich, F1niance Minister in the Emperor's last government. Tihis merclhant of Hodonin was a11legedily the natura•l father of T. G. MasaJ.'IY(k, later the President of Ozeicho-Slovakia. '"l1he RedJicll fami!Jy was ,expelled duTinig the time of Maniie Theresa, as ,were a11 the J ,ewis'h families of Hodonin. Many of the ex,pelees went to Hungary, wlhile some settled in Moraivilan towns . The departure ,o f "the Jewish famiihes ca,used the little town of Hodonin serious economic daimaige and, therefore, .the •Elmiperor allow,e d thi.rteen J,ewish d'amrlies to return J•n 1783. Among the returnees was also one Lazar Redilich, to whom a son, Nathan, was born in I803, who a'lso ;became a merclh-an't. "Was the ,grandifather of Joseph Redlich also the niatura,l father of Thomas Garriigue Masaryk? T.he story is very pla,us~ble and explains why Thcxllllas G. Masaryk excelled over the rest orf the members of ihis family, ipart-iculady his brofoers. It was Redi.i,ch money that ,gave hilill the opportunity to an education; and it exip]:lllins why Masaryik fav,ored the cause o.f the Jews. If t he grandfather of Joseph Red'1ioh was a1liso the ,grandfather orf Miaisacyk',s child.ren, b'hen it is understandable why Jian Masaeyk, the president's son, pa-rtioul>ady his daiugMer, Alke Masal"yik, have definite Jewish facial characteristics." This story of Masaryk being of Jewish origin I had heard many years .ago from Czechs themselves, 1!he last time from the Czech paJtriot, the Rt. Rev. Monsignor V. F. Mikolasek, a short time before he died. It is significant that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was very favorably received and generously supported by leadling Jewish per- �12 SLOVAKIA sonalities and organizations, the Jewish press, as well as other institutions which were influenced or dominated by them, wherever ihe travelled during World War I to gain suppott for his proposed Czecho-Slovak State. In return, Masaryk and Benes placed many Jews in the vianious departmenits of tJhe Czecho-Slovak Government as a token of their appreciation for services rendered. In fact the Jews were always more fuvored than the SiJ.ovaks. As late as 1949, at a special press conference ca:lled at the CzechoSlovak Embassy by Dr. Francis Weisskopf, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy, and Ernest Polak, alternate executive director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Yugoslawa and Finland, they denied reports that Jews were subject,ed to growing pressures in Czecho-Sfovakia. They stat.ed that they themselves and many leading members of their government were Jews. Mr. Polak added th'at "today there are many, many Jews in the highest positions in Czechoslovakia, not only in politics but in economics and the professions." (20). Significant, too, is the item on Jan Masaryk, the son of President Thomas G. Masairyk, when he visarted the United States in 1939, as reported by TIME magazine: "Last week Jan Masaryk was in the U. S .... to work not for the Czechs ... but for Democracy and persecuted Jews in particular. ... He shed no t.ears for his lost land . ... The Jan Masaryks are now divorced(21). And no less significant is tJhe item whicih appeared in the CHICAGO AMERICAN (22) under the heading of "Deaths Elsewhere" and read: "Antonin Masaryk, nephew of the late first president of Czechosllovakia and export manager of a brewery in Israel, aboard the vessel Egyptian Prince, Dec. 16 enroute from Britain to Israel." Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was not a fool. He was a brilliant man. Masaryk knew what he was and what he wanted. He came among the Slovaks in America, in 1918, because he needed them for his Czecho-Slovak propaganda. After that he ignored them completley. So did his son Jan and his daughter Alice. 'I'he Slovaks wm never be- �SLOVAKIA 13 lieve that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was a Slovak. And the sooner the Czechs give up their crazy game of trying to make a "Czechoslovak" nation by the simple formula Slovak = Czechoslovak," the better for all con"Czech cerned. + REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. H. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 1'9. 20. 21. 22. T. G. Masaryk: SVETOVA REVOLUCE, Or,bis, Prague, 1925; p. 75. Jlbidlem, p . 263. ]bidem, p. 320. Jlbidem, p. 395. ]bidem, p. 51'l.3. NMtOD, Aug. 7, 1953; Chicago, Ill. CE1NT'R.6.L-E ASTERN EUROPE (Crucible of World Wars), by Joseph S. Roucek, Ph.D., and Associates; !Pren1;,roe-,Hal!l, Inc., 19416; .p p. !13-54. N>idem, p. 83. CZECHOSLOVAKIA, ed!ited by 'ROlbert J. Kerner; Unwversi-ty of California Press, Beiikcley and Los Angeles, 194!9; p. 105. Pdnceton University Press, 1944. p . .191. p. 231. p. 252. OTTUV SLOVNIK N AUCNY, Praigue, 1900; VoJ. 16, p. 934. CZECHOSLOVAKIA (vd. albove); p. 4'9. Charles Caipek: MASARYK TELLS HIS STORY, Ahlen and UI11Wiin, Ltd., London, 1934; p. 209. SLAVONIC ENCYCLOPIEDIA, edited by J'OSeph s. !Roucek, PhJD., Universi-ty of Bridigeport; BhHosopll'ica'l Libracy, New Yoiik, li9419; p. 7'45. THE NEW YORK TIME'S, June 9, 1939. The Uniiversity .o,f N,ort.h Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1941. THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 5, 1949. Jan. 25, 19'J9. Dec. 27, 1957. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are deeply convinced that this alliance (with the USSR) is to the benefit of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union and that it also is a contribution to international understanding. Whosoever among us does not want to acknowledge this supra-partisan and national character of the Czechoslovak-Soviet alliance, he is undermining this alliance and working against his very own aims." - (Dr. Peter Zenk!, chairman "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," Karlove Vary, July 20, 1947, according to CAS, 7-25-47). � SLOVAKIA 7 WAST. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK ORIGIN? P. A. Hrobak Many volumes have been written about Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, hi'S life, his concepts of r~lig,ion, history, philosophy, morals, etc. I1t is significant, however, that little has been written, even by Czechs themselves. about Masa,,ryk's ethnic origin. To be sure, tihe Czechs claim him as one of their greatest men. Accor<ling to what has been written about T. G. Masaryk, even by himself, he was, we are supposed to believe, aJt one and the same time, a Czech, a Slovak, and a "Czechoslovak." Then there is the story t!hat he wais of Jewish origin. The Slovak people did not regard Masaryk as their political or spiritual leader; he simply was not one of their kind. He did not believe in what tihe Sloviak people, as a who'le, believed in. That is why they did not !trust him. And when Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, whlch he himse•l f drafted and Sligned - an agreement that was supposed to guarantee "states' rights" to Slovakia - rtihey were through wi!th him. When the Slovaks criticized Masaryk, most severely and harshly on occasions, leading Cze~hs and the several Slovaks m their pay would rebuke them for doing so to one of their own countrymen, Masaryk, who was, they said, born a Sloviak. Nevertheless, this did not make Masaryk •a Slovak, not even a renegade Slovak, as far as the Slovaks were concerned. What then was the ethnic origin of Thomas Ga11rigue MaJSaryk? Strange as it might seem, the truth is that Masaryk himself never cleared up the question. Lecturing in Geneva, July 6, 1915, with Professor Ernest Denis, T. G. Masaryk said: "Our struggle ,i s being waged in t!he spirit of our Hussite forefathers and has not ,o nly political but also mora1 justification" (1). Toi his book "Svetova Revoluce" (the English translation of which was titled "The Making of a State"), we find 1Jhe following statements rel,a ting to Masaryk's ethnic origin: '"11he Slovaks a,nd Czechs knew that J moisel!f always had been ifor Slovakia; by origin and lby tra,d~tions a Slovak, I feel �8 SLOVAKIA S~ova!k a,n d I ai1ways not on]iy feLt a wa[lffith for SlolWl'ki:a, but woriked for it ... . I know Sloivaikia and the people dn Sl-0vadcia quite welil" (2). "Prapa,ganda, as everywtb.ere, so in America, iwas aimed to .acqua1nrt AIIIlerica with our politica,l and oul-turail tb.is't:or:y; rpeople knew a,bouit the Czechs -and the former Czech kingdoon, bwt we h,a,d· t•rouible wiith 1Jhe Slovaks; they were unilmOWU'll and Americans found iit diffiouH to understand that they forun a part of our nat,ion"(3). "From childhood I d'e~t my Czech nature concretely in the und'er•s tandinig of 'the character, the vdews and ,Hfe of my COl\lllllt,e ymen i,n S!Jovacko (Slovalk ian Moravia and hn, Slovakia)) aind wi1h 1Jhe coUTse of time in Moravia and Bohemia. . . . I feel my Czech and Slovak nature, I would saiy, l'IUsbroailly, dia•l ectically; phi'liosQll)hicailliy I feel with Hus, Chelcicky, Zifilc•a, etc., UJP to Ha·vlicek"(4). But the same Masaryk also salid: "Our policy must be above all else Czech, in truth Czech, then it wiU be in truth a world policy and therefore also Slovanic" (5). And despite his many •a ssurances to the Slovaks during World WaJr I lthat he was a Slovak by birth ('he needed them to establish the Czecho.,Slovak State), T. G. Masaryk nevertheless declared at the Baris Peace Conference: "The Slovaks are Czechs and their language is but a dialect of the Czech language!" Dr. E·dward Benes supported Masa,ryk'is statement. Accoroing to the Czec.fu newspaper "Narod" (6), Masaryk had this to say about his mother rund father: "Mly father was a native of ~opcany ... my mother was from Hostopec, a Geriman coomnunity. . . . I think that I am a1C1C-0rd ing to blood a pure Slovak, withowt admi<lctu'l'es of Maigy,ar or German, even, though j_n my youth my matJher cO'U!ld SDeark better in Ger,marn than in Czech ... we pr~ed ,in German." 0 Professor Hans Kohn, generally regarded as a reliable historian, tells us that T.he greatest statesman of latter-<fa~ Aiustria, ·t he Czech ptb.ilosopher ThOm"as G. Masany{k, h-adi a foHowin,g of onJy a, .few int~lilectual's amo'lllg his own !PeQll)le. Born at the Czecho•S'llovak _b order, he tried to lbud·l d -a ,b ridge ifroon the progressive Czechs, who made foH use of the OIPIJOrtunHrl.es of free dev,elopprrnenlt in Austri'a, to the backward Slovaks to whom, under Malgy,air d-omlina,ti-on, n-0 such opportwni1ti,es were given"(7). "Thomas G. MasaJrY'k, a Moravian Slovak" ... "the s•o n of a Slovak terumster on an ,ilmperiial estate in Eastern Slovakia, Masa,cyk was born (11850)"(8) ... "The Czechs were able to build 1Jheir existence, UJruder the leadership of Paladky's diroiipl,e, Masacy,k, the liberaitor of the Czech nation, on these principles .... �SLOVAKIA AH of Ma,sacyk's wr1tmgs atbou,t the Czech proiblean, his 9 CESKA O'I'A2KA, and his bookls on Hus and on Karel Ha!V'licek are indebted to Plal!acky's conception of Czech histoey (9). Professor S. Harrison Thomson of Colorado University, whose book "Czechoslovakia in European History" (10) won him 1Jhe Czecho-Slovak State prize for li,tJerature in 1944 - ait a ti'me when that State did not faduaHy exist also had some difficulty in esta:blishing Masaryk's ethnic idenltity: ''Thomas Garr.itgue Masaicyk was ibor:n in t850 in Moravia, the son of a Slovak .futher and a Moravian mother"(lll). . . " By b1ood and tem'Perament Masaryk was as much Slovak as Czech'~(12) ... "To Masaryk, himself perhaps more Slovak than Czech, ,s uch a united effort (of Slova'1~s and Ozechs) .had been a self-evident neeessi-ty from the begiJming of the war"{13). Otto's Encyclopedia(14), pulblished eighteen years before Czecho-Slovalda was created, finds nothing Sfovak or "Czechoslovak" a'b out T. G. Masaryk, stating simply that he was :a "Czech philosopher." Robert J. Kerner, of Czech origin and a 'Sather Professor of Hrstory ,ait the Ull!iversli.ty of California, remarked that "Masaryk, himself of Slovak parentage, inspired Slovak youth a't the (Prague) University" (15). And on one ocoasion, Masaryk told Capek bluntly: "For us Czechs, Catholicism is ,a n impossible doctrine" ( 16). Dr. Joseph S. Roucek, professor at the Univwsity of Bridgeport, however, had a bit more to say: 1 "Mlasary{k, Tho1mas Garr.rilgiue (1~19371), Czechoslovak philosopher and statesmain, born on March 7. 1850, in tHodonliln on the Miorarvian-Slovakian border, of a Slovak father and a Czech mother'' . . . ''Afread,y as a stmd!ent e~pressed Ms strong Czec•h patriotism and h1is 01PPosition to soone of the db~s of the Oatholic Church into which he ,was born" . . . "The next yea.r (i:8'19, he) •beicame Pr,ivat-d!ozerut at the University of Vrienna and professor of philo'sophy at the Czech uruiversit:y Olf Prague (1882)" ... ''Turned to the great poiritilool and sooiJa,l problems of his da,y and became the naitionail ediuciat·OT Olf the Young Czech intelli!gents~ai" ... 'IHi:s cru&ad-e for truth led him to oppose the Czech romaintic nationaliSllll".. . ''Increased hi:s unpoipulacicy when he took uip the defense of mlsner, a Jew ,aiccused, of 'ritual murder', aigain!lt the emotiona•l anti-semitism of the Czech masses (11900)"~17). After the death of Masaryk, in September 1937, the Bratislava newspaper "Slovak" noted: "Masacyk was born in Hodonin, Moravia, March 7, 1850. !Es fuJtfuer, Joseph Masaryk, was a coach-<lriver on one of the Habsburg estates. Theresa Kropacek was his mother." �10 SLOVAKIA When Dr. Alice G. Masaryk, T. G. M.'s daughter, came ito Amerfoa in 1939 - her first visit here in twenltyeight years - she declined to describe herself as an ex,He, declaring "I am a Czech and Prague is my home" (18). Dr. W. Preston Warren, professor of phi1osophy rut Furman University in South Carolina, published his book "Masaryk's Democracy" in 1941 (19). Wit!h it he established himself as one of the foremost eulogists of Masaryk and his "Czechoslovakian" concept. That is understandable to informed people, because Dr. Warren is a charter member of the Masaryk Institute of America which, we are told, was founded "to promote cultural interchange between the Czechoslovak Republic and the United States." The fact remains, however, t!h at the Masaryk Institute promoted and still promotes the fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation and the personal philosophy and pa:rt'icu1ar in!terests of Thomas Ga:ririgue Masaryk and Dr. Edwaro Benes and their socialistic political entourage. 1 T. G. Masaryk, Dr. Warren teHs us, was "Born, 1850, in Hodonin, Moravia" (p. 3) .... "His father was a coachman with the background of a serf; his mother was a former Austrian household servant" (p. 4). That is alt Emil Ludwig published his book "Spirit and Time" (Oonvemations with Masaryk) in 1935, the 270-page book being read and approved before publication by Masaryk himself. In the book Ludwig tells us that Masaryk descends from Czechs and Slovaks and was born "in southern Moravia, near the border of both tribes." To Ludwig, Masaryk's character appears to be "typically Slovak" (p.14) and Masaryk himself told 1hirm: "Already as a child I was l>Hingual. My father was Slovak, my mother spoke German, but also Czech. Her parents were from Hana. I prayed in German, because my mother used to pray in Germ1a n from her German prayerbook" (p. 105). On the oocasion of -t he twen'bie!th anniversary of the death of T. G. Masaryk (Sept. 14, 1957) the Austri1an journals "Furche" and "Oberosterreichische" had this to say about the ethnic origin of Masaryk: �SLOVAKIA 11 "A nahve of Hana, Moravia, Masaryk's mother worked for sev,e ra·l years in Vienna before she became -a cook for a wea,l thy family in Hodonin. At fiirst she knew p,r,a~tiicaili!Jy nothing LI!; Czech and spoke with her chi1dren in the beginning only in Gerunan. Masaryk was recorded as a Geruna.n, in his ourrio1.11l'lllIIl v-itae orf ,1 875, which he hiim1selif wr.ote before attaindn•g his doctorate od' philosop'h'y at the University olf Vienna. '"Ilwo foicts are usua1.Jiy omdtted in the biographies of the president, and these he hlmselif, in his conversation with Oharles Capek, fails to menition: where his mother worked! as a cook in Hodonin., and, secondly, on w.hat day she was married dn 1849. It is easy to ascertain Wh\Y these facts are not mentioned, since the Hodonin Register shows !!hat she was imar-ried on Augiust 15, 18419, and that Mas.aryftc ,wa,g born on March 7', 18'50: between t:he marriage of the pa,re'I1its and the birth of yowng 'I1hiomas there are not even seven months. The mention of the,se dates coruld ea,sitly prolil/Pt the bhowght that the ,p res,i dent w,as born out of wedilock. ' 1On the other .hand a,ga,in, it is easy to ascertain just why the faimi)Jy for whom -Masaryk's mother ,coolked is never mentioned: The fact is that Masaryik's mother worked as a cook for a certa·Ll'a wealthy meflchant of Hodonin who owned ihl,s own miU and quite a ,piece of land. This merchant was the graindfabher of the world •r enowned Austrian historian and politician Joseph :Riedl1ich, F1niance Minister in the Emperor's last government. Tihis merclhant of Hodonin was a11legedily the natura•l father of T. G. MasaJ.'IY(k, later the President of Ozeicho-Slovakia. '"l1he RedJicll fami!Jy was ,expelled duTinig the time of Maniie Theresa, as ,were a11 the J ,ewis'h families of Hodonin. Many of the ex,pelees went to Hungary, wlhile some settled in Moraivilan towns . The departure ,o f "the Jewish famiihes ca,used the little town of Hodonin serious economic daimaige and, therefore, .the •Elmiperor allow,e d thi.rteen J,ewish d'amrlies to return J•n 1783. Among the returnees was also one Lazar Redilich, to whom a son, Nathan, was born in I803, who a'lso ;became a merclh-an't. "Was the ,grandifather of Joseph Redlich also the niatura,l father of Thomas Garriigue Masaryk? T.he story is very pla,us~ble and explains why Thcxllllas G. Masaryk excelled over the rest orf the members of ihis family, ipart-iculady his brofoers. It was Redi.i,ch money that ,gave hilill the opportunity to an education; and it exip]:lllins why Masaryik fav,ored the cause o.f the Jews. If t he grandfather of Joseph Red'1ioh was a1liso the ,grandfather orf Miaisacyk',s child.ren, b'hen it is understandable why Jian Masaeyk, the president's son, pa-rtioul>ady his daiugMer, Alke Masal"yik, have definite Jewish facial characteristics." This story of Masaryk being of Jewish origin I had heard many years .ago from Czechs themselves, 1!he last time from the Czech paJtriot, the Rt. Rev. Monsignor V. F. Mikolasek, a short time before he died. It is significant that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was very favorably received and generously supported by leadling Jewish per- �12 SLOVAKIA sonalities and organizations, the Jewish press, as well as other institutions which were influenced or dominated by them, wherever ihe travelled during World War I to gain suppott for his proposed Czecho-Slovak State. In return, Masaryk and Benes placed many Jews in the vianious departmenits of tJhe Czecho-Slovak Government as a token of their appreciation for services rendered. In fact the Jews were always more fuvored than the SiJ.ovaks. As late as 1949, at a special press conference ca:lled at the CzechoSlovak Embassy by Dr. Francis Weisskopf, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy, and Ernest Polak, alternate executive director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Yugoslawa and Finland, they denied reports that Jews were subject,ed to growing pressures in Czecho-Sfovakia. They stat.ed that they themselves and many leading members of their government were Jews. Mr. Polak added th'at "today there are many, many Jews in the highest positions in Czechoslovakia, not only in politics but in economics and the professions." (20). Significant, too, is the item on Jan Masaryk, the son of President Thomas G. Masairyk, when he visarted the United States in 1939, as reported by TIME magazine: "Last week Jan Masaryk was in the U. S .... to work not for the Czechs ... but for Democracy and persecuted Jews in particular. ... He shed no t.ears for his lost land . ... The Jan Masaryks are now divorced(21). And no less significant is tJhe item whicih appeared in the CHICAGO AMERICAN (22) under the heading of "Deaths Elsewhere" and read: "Antonin Masaryk, nephew of the late first president of Czechosllovakia and export manager of a brewery in Israel, aboard the vessel Egyptian Prince, Dec. 16 enroute from Britain to Israel." Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was not a fool. He was a brilliant man. Masaryk knew what he was and what he wanted. He came among the Slovaks in America, in 1918, because he needed them for his Czecho-Slovak propaganda. After that he ignored them completley. So did his son Jan and his daughter Alice. 'I'he Slovaks wm never be- �SLOVAKIA 13 lieve that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was a Slovak. And the sooner the Czechs give up their crazy game of trying to make a "Czechoslovak" nation by the simple formula Slovak = Czechoslovak," the better for all con"Czech cerned. + REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. H. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 1'9. 20. 21. 22. T. G. Masaryk: SVETOVA REVOLUCE, Or,bis, Prague, 1925; p. 75. Jlbidlem, p . 263. ]bidem, p. 320. Jlbidem, p. 395. ]bidem, p. 51'l.3. NMtOD, Aug. 7, 1953; Chicago, Ill. CE1NT'R.6.L-E ASTERN EUROPE (Crucible of World Wars), by Joseph S. Roucek, Ph.D., and Associates; !Pren1;,roe-,Hal!l, Inc., 19416; .p p. !13-54. N>idem, p. 83. CZECHOSLOVAKIA, ed!ited by 'ROlbert J. Kerner; Unwversi-ty of California Press, Beiikcley and Los Angeles, 194!9; p. 105. Pdnceton University Press, 1944. p . .191. p. 231. p. 252. OTTUV SLOVNIK N AUCNY, Praigue, 1900; VoJ. 16, p. 934. CZECHOSLOVAKIA (vd. albove); p. 4'9. Charles Caipek: MASARYK TELLS HIS STORY, Ahlen and UI11Wiin, Ltd., London, 1934; p. 209. SLAVONIC ENCYCLOPIEDIA, edited by J'OSeph s. !Roucek, PhJD., Universi-ty of Bridigeport; BhHosopll'ica'l Libracy, New Yoiik, li9419; p. 7'45. THE NEW YORK TIME'S, June 9, 1939. The Uniiversity .o,f N,ort.h Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1941. THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 5, 1949. Jan. 25, 19'J9. Dec. 27, 1957. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are deeply convinced that this alliance (with the USSR) is to the benefit of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union and that it also is a contribution to international understanding. Whosoever among us does not want to acknowledge this supra-partisan and national character of the Czechoslovak-Soviet alliance, he is undermining this alliance and working against his very own aims." - (Dr. Peter Zenk!, chairman "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," Karlove Vary, July 20, 1947, according to CAS, 7-25-47). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 7 WAST. G. MASARYK OF SLOVAK ORIGIN? P. A. Hrobak Many volumes have been written about Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, hi'S life, his concepts of r~lig,ion, history, philosophy, morals, etc. I1t is significant, however, that little has been written, even by Czechs themselves. about Masa,,ryk's ethnic origin. To be sure, tihe Czechs claim him as one of their greatest men. Accor<ling to what has been written about T. G. Masaryk, even by himself, he was, we are supposed to believe, aJt one and the same time, a Czech, a Slovak, and a "Czechoslovak." Then there is the story t!hat he wais of Jewish origin. The Slovak people did not regard Masaryk as their political or spiritual leader; he simply was not one of their kind. He did not believe in what tihe Sloviak people, as a who'le, believed in. That is why they did not !trust him. And when Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, whlch he himse•l f drafted and Sligned - an agreement that was supposed to guarantee "states' rights" to Slovakia - rtihey were through wi!th him. When the Slovaks criticized Masaryk, most severely and harshly on occasions, leading Cze~hs and the several Slovaks m their pay would rebuke them for doing so to one of their own countrymen, Masaryk, who was, they said, born a Sloviak. Nevertheless, this did not make Masaryk •a Slovak, not even a renegade Slovak, as far as the Slovaks were concerned. What then was the ethnic origin of Thomas Ga11rigue MaJSaryk? Strange as it might seem, the truth is that Masaryk himself never cleared up the question. Lecturing in Geneva, July 6, 1915, with Professor Ernest Denis, T. G. Masaryk said: "Our struggle ,i s being waged in t!he spirit of our Hussite forefathers and has not ,o nly political but also mora1 justification" (1). Toi his book "Svetova Revoluce" (the English translation of which was titled "The Making of a State"), we find 1Jhe following statements rel,a ting to Masaryk's ethnic origin: '"11he Slovaks a,nd Czechs knew that J moisel!f always had been ifor Slovakia; by origin and lby tra,d~tions a Slovak, I feel 8 SLOVAKIA S~ova!k a,n d I ai1ways not on]iy feLt a wa[lffith for SlolWl'ki:a, but woriked for it ... . I know Sloivaikia and the people dn Sl-0vadcia quite welil" (2). "Prapa,ganda, as everywtb.ere, so in America, iwas aimed to .acqua1nrt AIIIlerica with our politica,l and oul-turail tb.is't:or:y; rpeople knew a,bouit the Czechs -and the former Czech kingdoon, bwt we h,a,d· t•rouible wiith 1Jhe Slovaks; they were unilmOWU'll and Americans found iit diffiouH to understand that they forun a part of our nat,ion"(3). "From childhood I d'e~t my Czech nature concretely in the und'er•s tandinig of 'the character, the vdews and ,Hfe of my COl\lllllt,e ymen i,n S!Jovacko (Slovalk ian Moravia and hn, Slovakia)) aind wi1h 1Jhe coUTse of time in Moravia and Bohemia. . . . I feel my Czech and Slovak nature, I would saiy, l'IUsbroailly, dia•l ectically; phi'liosQll)hicailliy I feel with Hus, Chelcicky, Zifilc•a, etc., UJP to Ha·vlicek"(4). But the same Masaryk also salid: "Our policy must be above all else Czech, in truth Czech, then it wiU be in truth a world policy and therefore also Slovanic" (5). And despite his many •a ssurances to the Slovaks during World WaJr I lthat he was a Slovak by birth ('he needed them to establish the Czecho.,Slovak State), T. G. Masaryk nevertheless declared at the Baris Peace Conference: "The Slovaks are Czechs and their language is but a dialect of the Czech language!" Dr. E·dward Benes supported Masa,ryk'is statement. Accoroing to the Czec.fu newspaper "Narod" (6), Masaryk had this to say about his mother rund father: "Mly father was a native of ~opcany ... my mother was from Hostopec, a Geriman coomnunity. . . . I think that I am a1C1C-0rd ing to blood a pure Slovak, withowt admi<lctu'l'es of Maigy,ar or German, even, though j_n my youth my matJher cO'U!ld SDeark better in Ger,marn than in Czech ... we pr~ed ,in German." 0 Professor Hans Kohn, generally regarded as a reliable historian, tells us that T.he greatest statesman of latter-<fa~ Aiustria, ·t he Czech ptb.ilosopher ThOm"as G. Masany{k, h-adi a foHowin,g of onJy a, .few int~lilectual's amo'lllg his own !PeQll)le. Born at the Czecho•S'llovak _b order, he tried to lbud·l d -a ,b ridge ifroon the progressive Czechs, who made foH use of the OIPIJOrtunHrl.es of free dev,elopprrnenlt in Austri'a, to the backward Slovaks to whom, under Malgy,air d-omlina,ti-on, n-0 such opportwni1ti,es were given"(7). "Thomas G. MasaJrY'k, a Moravian Slovak" ... "the s•o n of a Slovak terumster on an ,ilmperiial estate in Eastern Slovakia, Masa,cyk was born (11850)"(8) ... "The Czechs were able to build 1Jheir existence, UJruder the leadership of Paladky's diroiipl,e, Masacy,k, the liberaitor of the Czech nation, on these principles .... SLOVAKIA AH of Ma,sacyk's wr1tmgs atbou,t the Czech proiblean, his 9 CESKA O'I'A2KA, and his bookls on Hus and on Karel Ha!V'licek are indebted to Plal!acky's conception of Czech histoey (9). Professor S. Harrison Thomson of Colorado University, whose book "Czechoslovakia in European History" (10) won him 1Jhe Czecho-Slovak State prize for li,tJerature in 1944 - ait a ti'me when that State did not faduaHy exist also had some difficulty in esta:blishing Masaryk's ethnic idenltity: ''Thomas Garr.itgue Masaicyk was ibor:n in t850 in Moravia, the son of a Slovak .futher and a Moravian mother"(lll). . . " By b1ood and tem'Perament Masaryk was as much Slovak as Czech'~(12) ... "To Masaryk, himself perhaps more Slovak than Czech, ,s uch a united effort (of Slova'1~s and Ozechs) .had been a self-evident neeessi-ty from the begiJming of the war"{13). Otto's Encyclopedia(14), pulblished eighteen years before Czecho-Slovalda was created, finds nothing Sfovak or "Czechoslovak" a'b out T. G. Masaryk, stating simply that he was :a "Czech philosopher." Robert J. Kerner, of Czech origin and a 'Sather Professor of Hrstory ,ait the Ull!iversli.ty of California, remarked that "Masaryk, himself of Slovak parentage, inspired Slovak youth a't the (Prague) University" (15). And on one ocoasion, Masaryk told Capek bluntly: "For us Czechs, Catholicism is ,a n impossible doctrine" ( 16). Dr. Joseph S. Roucek, professor at the Univwsity of Bridgeport, however, had a bit more to say: 1 "Mlasary{k, Tho1mas Garr.rilgiue (1~19371), Czechoslovak philosopher and statesmain, born on March 7. 1850, in tHodonliln on the Miorarvian-Slovakian border, of a Slovak father and a Czech mother'' . . . ''Afread,y as a stmd!ent e~pressed Ms strong Czec•h patriotism and h1is 01PPosition to soone of the db~s of the Oatholic Church into which he ,was born" . . . "The next yea.r (i:8'19, he) •beicame Pr,ivat-d!ozerut at the University of Vrienna and professor of philo'sophy at the Czech uruiversit:y Olf Prague (1882)" ... ''Turned to the great poiritilool and sooiJa,l problems of his da,y and became the naitionail ediuciat·OT Olf the Young Czech intelli!gents~ai" ... 'IHi:s cru&ad-e for truth led him to oppose the Czech romaintic nationaliSllll".. . ''Increased hi:s unpoipulacicy when he took uip the defense of mlsner, a Jew ,aiccused, of 'ritual murder', aigain!lt the emotiona•l anti-semitism of the Czech masses (11900)"~17). After the death of Masaryk, in September 1937, the Bratislava newspaper "Slovak" noted: "Masacyk was born in Hodonin, Moravia, March 7, 1850. !Es fuJtfuer, Joseph Masaryk, was a coach-<lriver on one of the Habsburg estates. Theresa Kropacek was his mother." 10 SLOVAKIA When Dr. Alice G. Masaryk, T. G. M.'s daughter, came ito Amerfoa in 1939 - her first visit here in twenltyeight years - she declined to describe herself as an ex,He, declaring "I am a Czech and Prague is my home" (18). Dr. W. Preston Warren, professor of phi1osophy rut Furman University in South Carolina, published his book "Masaryk's Democracy" in 1941 (19). Wit!h it he established himself as one of the foremost eulogists of Masaryk and his "Czechoslovakian" concept. That is understandable to informed people, because Dr. Warren is a charter member of the Masaryk Institute of America which, we are told, was founded "to promote cultural interchange between the Czechoslovak Republic and the United States." The fact remains, however, t!h at the Masaryk Institute promoted and still promotes the fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak" nation and the personal philosophy and pa:rt'icu1ar in!terests of Thomas Ga:ririgue Masaryk and Dr. Edwaro Benes and their socialistic political entourage. 1 T. G. Masaryk, Dr. Warren teHs us, was "Born, 1850, in Hodonin, Moravia" (p. 3) .... "His father was a coachman with the background of a serf; his mother was a former Austrian household servant" (p. 4). That is alt Emil Ludwig published his book "Spirit and Time" (Oonvemations with Masaryk) in 1935, the 270-page book being read and approved before publication by Masaryk himself. In the book Ludwig tells us that Masaryk descends from Czechs and Slovaks and was born "in southern Moravia, near the border of both tribes." To Ludwig, Masaryk's character appears to be "typically Slovak" (p.14) and Masaryk himself told 1hirm: "Already as a child I was l>Hingual. My father was Slovak, my mother spoke German, but also Czech. Her parents were from Hana. I prayed in German, because my mother used to pray in Germ1a n from her German prayerbook" (p. 105). On the oocasion of -t he twen'bie!th anniversary of the death of T. G. Masaryk (Sept. 14, 1957) the Austri1an journals "Furche" and "Oberosterreichische" had this to say about the ethnic origin of Masaryk: SLOVAKIA 11 "A nahve of Hana, Moravia, Masaryk's mother worked for sev,e ra·l years in Vienna before she became -a cook for a wea,l thy family in Hodonin. At fiirst she knew p,r,a~tiicaili!Jy nothing LI!; Czech and spoke with her chi1dren in the beginning only in Gerunan. Masaryk was recorded as a Geruna.n, in his ourrio1.11l'lllIIl v-itae orf ,1 875, which he hiim1selif wr.ote before attaindn•g his doctorate od' philosop'h'y at the University olf Vienna. '"Ilwo foicts are usua1.Jiy omdtted in the biographies of the president, and these he hlmselif, in his conversation with Oharles Capek, fails to menition: where his mother worked! as a cook in Hodonin., and, secondly, on w.hat day she was married dn 1849. It is easy to ascertain Wh\Y these facts are not mentioned, since the Hodonin Register shows !!hat she was imar-ried on Augiust 15, 18419, and that Mas.aryftc ,wa,g born on March 7', 18'50: between t:he marriage of the pa,re'I1its and the birth of yowng 'I1hiomas there are not even seven months. The mention of the,se dates coruld ea,sitly prolil/Pt the bhowght that the ,p res,i dent w,as born out of wedilock. ' 1On the other .hand a,ga,in, it is easy to ascertain just why the faimi)Jy for whom -Masaryk's mother ,coolked is never mentioned: The fact is that Masaryik's mother worked as a cook for a certa·Ll'a wealthy meflchant of Hodonin who owned ihl,s own miU and quite a ,piece of land. This merchant was the graindfabher of the world •r enowned Austrian historian and politician Joseph :Riedl1ich, F1niance Minister in the Emperor's last government. Tihis merclhant of Hodonin was a11legedily the natura•l father of T. G. MasaJ.'IY(k, later the President of Ozeicho-Slovakia. '"l1he RedJicll fami!Jy was ,expelled duTinig the time of Maniie Theresa, as ,were a11 the J ,ewis'h families of Hodonin. Many of the ex,pelees went to Hungary, wlhile some settled in Moraivilan towns . The departure ,o f "the Jewish famiihes ca,used the little town of Hodonin serious economic daimaige and, therefore, .the •Elmiperor allow,e d thi.rteen J,ewish d'amrlies to return J•n 1783. Among the returnees was also one Lazar Redilich, to whom a son, Nathan, was born in I803, who a'lso ;became a merclh-an't. "Was the ,grandifather of Joseph Redlich also the niatura,l father of Thomas Garriigue Masaryk? T.he story is very pla,us~ble and explains why Thcxllllas G. Masaryk excelled over the rest orf the members of ihis family, ipart-iculady his brofoers. It was Redi.i,ch money that ,gave hilill the opportunity to an education; and it exip]:lllins why Masaryik fav,ored the cause o.f the Jews. If t he grandfather of Joseph Red'1ioh was a1liso the ,grandfather orf Miaisacyk',s child.ren, b'hen it is understandable why Jian Masaeyk, the president's son, pa-rtioul>ady his daiugMer, Alke Masal"yik, have definite Jewish facial characteristics." This story of Masaryk being of Jewish origin I had heard many years .ago from Czechs themselves, 1!he last time from the Czech paJtriot, the Rt. Rev. Monsignor V. F. Mikolasek, a short time before he died. It is significant that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was very favorably received and generously supported by leadling Jewish per- 12 SLOVAKIA sonalities and organizations, the Jewish press, as well as other institutions which were influenced or dominated by them, wherever ihe travelled during World War I to gain suppott for his proposed Czecho-Slovak State. In return, Masaryk and Benes placed many Jews in the vianious departmenits of tJhe Czecho-Slovak Government as a token of their appreciation for services rendered. In fact the Jews were always more fuvored than the SiJ.ovaks. As late as 1949, at a special press conference ca:lled at the CzechoSlovak Embassy by Dr. Francis Weisskopf, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy, and Ernest Polak, alternate executive director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Yugoslawa and Finland, they denied reports that Jews were subject,ed to growing pressures in Czecho-Sfovakia. They stat.ed that they themselves and many leading members of their government were Jews. Mr. Polak added th'at "today there are many, many Jews in the highest positions in Czechoslovakia, not only in politics but in economics and the professions." (20). Significant, too, is the item on Jan Masaryk, the son of President Thomas G. Masairyk, when he visarted the United States in 1939, as reported by TIME magazine: "Last week Jan Masaryk was in the U. S .... to work not for the Czechs ... but for Democracy and persecuted Jews in particular. ... He shed no t.ears for his lost land . ... The Jan Masaryks are now divorced(21). And no less significant is tJhe item whicih appeared in the CHICAGO AMERICAN (22) under the heading of "Deaths Elsewhere" and read: "Antonin Masaryk, nephew of the late first president of Czechosllovakia and export manager of a brewery in Israel, aboard the vessel Egyptian Prince, Dec. 16 enroute from Britain to Israel." Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was not a fool. He was a brilliant man. Masaryk knew what he was and what he wanted. He came among the Slovaks in America, in 1918, because he needed them for his Czecho-Slovak propaganda. After that he ignored them completley. So did his son Jan and his daughter Alice. 'I'he Slovaks wm never be- SLOVAKIA 13 lieve that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was a Slovak. And the sooner the Czechs give up their crazy game of trying to make a "Czechoslovak" nation by the simple formula Slovak = Czechoslovak," the better for all con"Czech cerned. + REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. H. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 1'9. 20. 21. 22. T. G. Masaryk: SVETOVA REVOLUCE, Or,bis, Prague, 1925; p. 75. Jlbidlem, p . 263. ]bidem, p. 320. Jlbidem, p. 395. ]bidem, p. 51'l.3. NMtOD, Aug. 7, 1953; Chicago, Ill. CE1NT'R.6.L-E ASTERN EUROPE (Crucible of World Wars), by Joseph S. Roucek, Ph.D., and Associates; !Pren1;,roe-,Hal!l, Inc., 19416; .p p. !13-54. N>idem, p. 83. CZECHOSLOVAKIA, ed!ited by 'ROlbert J. Kerner; Unwversi-ty of California Press, Beiikcley and Los Angeles, 194!9; p. 105. Pdnceton University Press, 1944. p . .191. p. 231. p. 252. OTTUV SLOVNIK N AUCNY, Praigue, 1900; VoJ. 16, p. 934. CZECHOSLOVAKIA (vd. albove); p. 4'9. Charles Caipek: MASARYK TELLS HIS STORY, Ahlen and UI11Wiin, Ltd., London, 1934; p. 209. SLAVONIC ENCYCLOPIEDIA, edited by J'OSeph s. !Roucek, PhJD., Universi-ty of Bridigeport; BhHosopll'ica'l Libracy, New Yoiik, li9419; p. 7'45. THE NEW YORK TIME'S, June 9, 1939. The Uniiversity .o,f N,ort.h Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1941. THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 5, 1949. Jan. 25, 19'J9. Dec. 27, 1957. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We are deeply convinced that this alliance (with the USSR) is to the benefit of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union and that it also is a contribution to international understanding. Whosoever among us does not want to acknowledge this supra-partisan and national character of the Czechoslovak-Soviet alliance, he is undermining this alliance and working against his very own aims." - (Dr. Peter Zenk!, chairman "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," Karlove Vary, July 20, 1947, according to CAS, 7-25-47).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Was T. G. Masaryk of Slovak Origin? Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 7-13 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/193aa3e6bed980798598a513e471b3a3.pdf e90db9312e1a195c7ca61595a15824d3 PDF Text Text 14 SLOVAKIA MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVAKIA Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum For the past fifteen years Slovak exiles have been concerned for the most part with Czech pol'iiticians and their adamant ·opposition to Slovak freedom and independence. As a resur.t, many people tlhink that the Slovaks have no pl'oblems with their other neighbors, particularly the Magyars, who consistently refer to themselves as "Hungarians." The fact of the matter i's, however, that even some Magyar exiles rather seem to enjoy presenting Slovakia and 1:Jhe S11ovaks in an unfavorable lig,ht, propagaJting tendencious stories and distorting :the truth in much the same way that the late Dr. Edward Benes dlid, and his followers are still doing. This policy of Czech chauvinists is readl'ly understandable : they are determined that !the Slovaks shall be dominated by the Czechs for aH time in the po1irtical monstrosity caMed Czec'ho-Slovakia. But irt is diffiicult to understand just what the Magyars hope to gain by their hostile attitude toward Slovak freedom and independence. Neither the western world nor tlhe Slovaks wiM accept any plan to return Sloviakia to Hungary to be dominated by the Magyars. Brofessor Tuka used to say that the interests of the neighbors of Slovakia wi:U help the Slovaks preserve their independence, because i1t is not in the interest of the Poles or Magyars that the Slovaks be dominated by the Czechs. Conversely, logical consideration of this mat'ter leads to the conclusion that bdth these neighbors of the Slovaks ,s hould, in their own ,i nterests, promorte the independence of Slovakia. Slovaks in exile have tried to develop friendly relations w'iith exiled representa'tives of other nationalities, including the Poles and Magyars. They were organized in the Slovak National Oouncil Abroad before February 25, 1948, when the Czech communists seized full power in Czecho-Slovakia and Czech and Czecho-Slovak officials soon after began a mass exodus from the "people's democracy" they had helped to create. ':Dhe SNCA was recognized by the Poliish government-in-exile and the Ma1 �15 SLOVAKIA gyar National Council in London. In 1:Jhe beginning of 1949, with the la'te Karol Sidor, at rthat time president of the SNCA, we had a meeting with Magyar representatives - Monsignor Bela Varga and Count G. Bakacs-Besseneyi - in Paris and we though't tha,t our efforts for f.riendly relations met with underst:anding. The situation changed, however, when certain influenlial political circles in America called into being the "National Councils" - and among t!hem also the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," whidh was created witlh the blessing of the U. S. State Department then under Dean Acheson. As a condition of moral and material support, the various nationality councils were required to work toge'ther in harmony. The Council of Free Czechoslovakia was completely dominated by the Benes Czedhs, the Czech National Socialists (Dr .Hubert Ripka, Dr. Peter Zenkl). As in the past, so even now, several Slov,ak personalities (Joseph Lettrich, Stephen Kocvara, George Slavik), completely subservient to t!he Czech group, were added fur window-dressing so thalt the appel1ation "Czechoslovak" mighrt continue to apply. It was thus that the Magyar National Council discontinued cooperating with the Slovak National Council Abroad and began to work together with t!he organ'iza!t'ion of Ripka, Zenkl, and Lettrich (the Council of F1ree Czechoslovakia) , who not only support the thesis of Czech hegemony over Slovakia, but are also held responsible for ,t he deporbwtion of hundreds of thousands of Magyars while they reigned with Benes in Prague and looked upon the leaders of the Magyar exile as Nazi collaborators and traitors. Strange ,bedfellows, indeed! The SloV1aks were not tlhe cause of this change of policy of the Magyar National Council, nor could they alter it. Of course, irt would be in the interest of the Magyars and the Slov:aks, as well as in the h'ig'hest interest of a better future of all the nations of Central Europe, if 1Jhe Magyar exile made an -e ffort to seek a more just and permanent soluili-o n of Cenrtral-European problems than that fur,c ed upon Central Europe, with the help of Czech poli'bicians, after the wars in 1918 and 1945 - the same solu1 �16 SLOVAKIA ti!on now being promoted by the Council of Firee Czechoslovakia which is dominated by the Czechs for the Czechs. It is noteworthy, thougfu, that some Magyar exiles, grouped around the periodiicail Nemzetor, have seen through the fraud of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and are now on the right track toward solving the problems of • Centval Europe. But the Magy·a r National Council was not the on)y body indirectly aiding and aibetting Czech exiles and Czech tendencies. Magyar journalists and more or less known diplomats have also helped the Czech chauvinists. ]t is not easy to answer the question why they should write about the Slovak Republic so tendenciously, utterly disregarding facts and <listorting the truth. And this is all the more difficult to understand, because some of them wrote in suoh a fashion already a,s professors at American universities and their literary efforts are supposed to be scientific works. Objectively, as :far as 'the Slovaks were concerned, wenrt down the drain. Let's get down to cases. Andrew Gyovgy, assistant professor of potiticail sciences at Yale University, authored tJhe book "Governments of Danubian Europe" (Rinehart and Co., 1949). lit appears to be the best collection of the propaganda used by the Czech exiles during World War II; disregard for objectivity and reliability of sources is in full evidence in this conneotion. No less objective and anti-Slovak is the book "The Great Powers And Eastern Europe," authored by John A. Lukacs, (American Book Co., 1953). This book of 878 pages gives the impression of a serious work. As far as Slovakia is concerned, however, the most :fantastic falsehoods, half-1truths, and inaccwaoies of Czech propaganda are here repeated under tJhe guise of a scientific volume. The vrurious literary endeavors authored or edited by Professor Stephen D. Kert.esz of Notre Dame University unnecessarily characterize ilie S'1ovak Republic as "a German puppet State" and the Slovak Government as a "Nazi government." In the book "The Fate of East Central Europe" (Notre Dame Press, 1956), whic.h was edited by Dr. Kertesz, the chapter by Professor Robert H. Ferrell de- �SLOVAKIA 17 monstrates that the author has little first-hand knowledge about the Slovaks and their country. The chapter by Ivo Duchacek is a glaring example of typical Czech propaganda, replete with inaccuracies, un-truths, and distortions of fact. The book "The Triumph of Tyranny," written by Steplien Borsody, perhaps tops all literary works in this regard. The author was brought up in Slovakia; he was a Magyar journalist of some note, then, after the war, a diplomat of the Budapest government; now he is teaching at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pa. What excuse is there for the anti-Slovak tendency of Borsody? Borsody's book is brilliantly written; it's aim is a new federative order in Central Europe. He takes an objectively negative stand toward the politics of Dr. Edward Benes, also to the deportation of the Magyars from Slovakia; on the whole he takes a sober outlook of the past and the necessity of a new solution of .the problems of Cen'tral Europe in the future. And yet, all objectivity seems to disappear when Borsody writes about the Slovak Republic. He was in Slovakia; he is acquainted with its problems, the will of the Slovak nation; and he had the facts firs't-hand. Why then did he resort to smearing the Slovaks and their country? This was not only not necessary, but also against the interests of the federative conception of Central Europe which Borsody defends so correctly and skillfully. Those who would deny the Slovaks their freedom and political independence demonstrate how little they value these very blessings for their own nations. What have the Czechs to ·g ain by joining Magyars who are opposed to the freedom and independence of the Slovaks? And vice-versa? How do Magyars and Czechs serve the ends of justice and democracy by denying to the Slovaks the very blessings of freedom which they claim for themselves? It is, the Slovaks believe, in the interests of all the nations of the Danubian Basin, nay, in the interests of all Europe, tha't the Slovaks be free of foreign and hostile rule and manage their own household. Exiles from European countries do harm to the cause of freedom and democracy when they deny the fruits of freedom to others; they are certa-inly not helping the. very cause they claim to represen't. � 14 SLOVAKIA MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVAKIA Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum For the past fifteen years Slovak exiles have been concerned for the most part with Czech pol'iiticians and their adamant ·opposition to Slovak freedom and independence. As a resur.t, many people tlhink that the Slovaks have no pl'oblems with their other neighbors, particularly the Magyars, who consistently refer to themselves as "Hungarians." The fact of the matter i's, however, that even some Magyar exiles rather seem to enjoy presenting Slovakia and 1:Jhe S11ovaks in an unfavorable lig,ht, propagaJting tendencious stories and distorting :the truth in much the same way that the late Dr. Edward Benes dlid, and his followers are still doing. This policy of Czech chauvinists is readl'ly understandable : they are determined that !the Slovaks shall be dominated by the Czechs for aH time in the po1irtical monstrosity caMed Czec'ho-Slovakia. But irt is diffiicult to understand just what the Magyars hope to gain by their hostile attitude toward Slovak freedom and independence. Neither the western world nor tlhe Slovaks wiM accept any plan to return Sloviakia to Hungary to be dominated by the Magyars. Brofessor Tuka used to say that the interests of the neighbors of Slovakia wi:U help the Slovaks preserve their independence, because i1t is not in the interest of the Poles or Magyars that the Slovaks be dominated by the Czechs. Conversely, logical consideration of this mat'ter leads to the conclusion that bdth these neighbors of the Slovaks ,s hould, in their own ,i nterests, promorte the independence of Slovakia. Slovaks in exile have tried to develop friendly relations w'iith exiled representa'tives of other nationalities, including the Poles and Magyars. They were organized in the Slovak National Oouncil Abroad before February 25, 1948, when the Czech communists seized full power in Czecho-Slovakia and Czech and Czecho-Slovak officials soon after began a mass exodus from the "people's democracy" they had helped to create. ':Dhe SNCA was recognized by the Poliish government-in-exile and the Ma1 �15 SLOVAKIA gyar National Council in London. In 1:Jhe beginning of 1949, with the la'te Karol Sidor, at rthat time president of the SNCA, we had a meeting with Magyar representatives - Monsignor Bela Varga and Count G. Bakacs-Besseneyi - in Paris and we though't tha,t our efforts for f.riendly relations met with underst:anding. The situation changed, however, when certain influenlial political circles in America called into being the "National Councils" - and among t!hem also the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," whidh was created witlh the blessing of the U. S. State Department then under Dean Acheson. As a condition of moral and material support, the various nationality councils were required to work toge'ther in harmony. The Council of Free Czechoslovakia was completely dominated by the Benes Czedhs, the Czech National Socialists (Dr .Hubert Ripka, Dr. Peter Zenkl). As in the past, so even now, several Slov,ak personalities (Joseph Lettrich, Stephen Kocvara, George Slavik), completely subservient to t!he Czech group, were added fur window-dressing so thalt the appel1ation "Czechoslovak" mighrt continue to apply. It was thus that the Magyar National Council discontinued cooperating with the Slovak National Council Abroad and began to work together with t!he organ'iza!t'ion of Ripka, Zenkl, and Lettrich (the Council of F1ree Czechoslovakia) , who not only support the thesis of Czech hegemony over Slovakia, but are also held responsible for ,t he deporbwtion of hundreds of thousands of Magyars while they reigned with Benes in Prague and looked upon the leaders of the Magyar exile as Nazi collaborators and traitors. Strange ,bedfellows, indeed! The SloV1aks were not tlhe cause of this change of policy of the Magyar National Council, nor could they alter it. Of course, irt would be in the interest of the Magyars and the Slov:aks, as well as in the h'ig'hest interest of a better future of all the nations of Central Europe, if 1Jhe Magyar exile made an -e ffort to seek a more just and permanent soluili-o n of Cenrtral-European problems than that fur,c ed upon Central Europe, with the help of Czech poli'bicians, after the wars in 1918 and 1945 - the same solu1 �16 SLOVAKIA ti!on now being promoted by the Council of Firee Czechoslovakia which is dominated by the Czechs for the Czechs. It is noteworthy, thougfu, that some Magyar exiles, grouped around the periodiicail Nemzetor, have seen through the fraud of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and are now on the right track toward solving the problems of • Centval Europe. But the Magy·a r National Council was not the on)y body indirectly aiding and aibetting Czech exiles and Czech tendencies. Magyar journalists and more or less known diplomats have also helped the Czech chauvinists. ]t is not easy to answer the question why they should write about the Slovak Republic so tendenciously, utterly disregarding facts and <listorting the truth. And this is all the more difficult to understand, because some of them wrote in suoh a fashion already a,s professors at American universities and their literary efforts are supposed to be scientific works. Objectively, as :far as 'the Slovaks were concerned, wenrt down the drain. Let's get down to cases. Andrew Gyovgy, assistant professor of potiticail sciences at Yale University, authored tJhe book "Governments of Danubian Europe" (Rinehart and Co., 1949). lit appears to be the best collection of the propaganda used by the Czech exiles during World War II; disregard for objectivity and reliability of sources is in full evidence in this conneotion. No less objective and anti-Slovak is the book "The Great Powers And Eastern Europe," authored by John A. Lukacs, (American Book Co., 1953). This book of 878 pages gives the impression of a serious work. As far as Slovakia is concerned, however, the most :fantastic falsehoods, half-1truths, and inaccwaoies of Czech propaganda are here repeated under tJhe guise of a scientific volume. The vrurious literary endeavors authored or edited by Professor Stephen D. Kert.esz of Notre Dame University unnecessarily characterize ilie S'1ovak Republic as "a German puppet State" and the Slovak Government as a "Nazi government." In the book "The Fate of East Central Europe" (Notre Dame Press, 1956), whic.h was edited by Dr. Kertesz, the chapter by Professor Robert H. Ferrell de- �SLOVAKIA 17 monstrates that the author has little first-hand knowledge about the Slovaks and their country. The chapter by Ivo Duchacek is a glaring example of typical Czech propaganda, replete with inaccuracies, un-truths, and distortions of fact. The book "The Triumph of Tyranny," written by Steplien Borsody, perhaps tops all literary works in this regard. The author was brought up in Slovakia; he was a Magyar journalist of some note, then, after the war, a diplomat of the Budapest government; now he is teaching at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pa. What excuse is there for the anti-Slovak tendency of Borsody? Borsody's book is brilliantly written; it's aim is a new federative order in Central Europe. He takes an objectively negative stand toward the politics of Dr. Edward Benes, also to the deportation of the Magyars from Slovakia; on the whole he takes a sober outlook of the past and the necessity of a new solution of .the problems of Cen'tral Europe in the future. And yet, all objectivity seems to disappear when Borsody writes about the Slovak Republic. He was in Slovakia; he is acquainted with its problems, the will of the Slovak nation; and he had the facts firs't-hand. Why then did he resort to smearing the Slovaks and their country? This was not only not necessary, but also against the interests of the federative conception of Central Europe which Borsody defends so correctly and skillfully. Those who would deny the Slovaks their freedom and political independence demonstrate how little they value these very blessings for their own nations. What have the Czechs to ·g ain by joining Magyars who are opposed to the freedom and independence of the Slovaks? And vice-versa? How do Magyars and Czechs serve the ends of justice and democracy by denying to the Slovaks the very blessings of freedom which they claim for themselves? It is, the Slovaks believe, in the interests of all the nations of the Danubian Basin, nay, in the interests of all Europe, tha't the Slovaks be free of foreign and hostile rule and manage their own household. Exiles from European countries do harm to the cause of freedom and democracy when they deny the fruits of freedom to others; they are certa-inly not helping the. very cause they claim to represen't. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 14 SLOVAKIA MAGYAR EXILES AND SLOVAKIA Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum For the past fifteen years Slovak exiles have been concerned for the most part with Czech pol'iiticians and their adamant ·opposition to Slovak freedom and independence. As a resur.t, many people tlhink that the Slovaks have no pl'oblems with their other neighbors, particularly the Magyars, who consistently refer to themselves as "Hungarians." The fact of the matter i's, however, that even some Magyar exiles rather seem to enjoy presenting Slovakia and 1:Jhe S11ovaks in an unfavorable lig,ht, propagaJting tendencious stories and distorting :the truth in much the same way that the late Dr. Edward Benes dlid, and his followers are still doing. This policy of Czech chauvinists is readl'ly understandable : they are determined that !the Slovaks shall be dominated by the Czechs for aH time in the po1irtical monstrosity caMed Czec'ho-Slovakia. But irt is diffiicult to understand just what the Magyars hope to gain by their hostile attitude toward Slovak freedom and independence. Neither the western world nor tlhe Slovaks wiM accept any plan to return Sloviakia to Hungary to be dominated by the Magyars. Brofessor Tuka used to say that the interests of the neighbors of Slovakia wi:U help the Slovaks preserve their independence, because i1t is not in the interest of the Poles or Magyars that the Slovaks be dominated by the Czechs. Conversely, logical consideration of this mat'ter leads to the conclusion that bdth these neighbors of the Slovaks ,s hould, in their own ,i nterests, promorte the independence of Slovakia. Slovaks in exile have tried to develop friendly relations w'iith exiled representa'tives of other nationalities, including the Poles and Magyars. They were organized in the Slovak National Oouncil Abroad before February 25, 1948, when the Czech communists seized full power in Czecho-Slovakia and Czech and Czecho-Slovak officials soon after began a mass exodus from the "people's democracy" they had helped to create. ':Dhe SNCA was recognized by the Poliish government-in-exile and the Ma1 15 SLOVAKIA gyar National Council in London. In 1:Jhe beginning of 1949, with the la'te Karol Sidor, at rthat time president of the SNCA, we had a meeting with Magyar representatives - Monsignor Bela Varga and Count G. Bakacs-Besseneyi - in Paris and we though't tha,t our efforts for f.riendly relations met with underst:anding. The situation changed, however, when certain influenlial political circles in America called into being the "National Councils" - and among t!hem also the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," whidh was created witlh the blessing of the U. S. State Department then under Dean Acheson. As a condition of moral and material support, the various nationality councils were required to work toge'ther in harmony. The Council of Free Czechoslovakia was completely dominated by the Benes Czedhs, the Czech National Socialists (Dr .Hubert Ripka, Dr. Peter Zenkl). As in the past, so even now, several Slov,ak personalities (Joseph Lettrich, Stephen Kocvara, George Slavik), completely subservient to t!he Czech group, were added fur window-dressing so thalt the appel1ation "Czechoslovak" mighrt continue to apply. It was thus that the Magyar National Council discontinued cooperating with the Slovak National Council Abroad and began to work together with t!he organ'iza!t'ion of Ripka, Zenkl, and Lettrich (the Council of F1ree Czechoslovakia) , who not only support the thesis of Czech hegemony over Slovakia, but are also held responsible for ,t he deporbwtion of hundreds of thousands of Magyars while they reigned with Benes in Prague and looked upon the leaders of the Magyar exile as Nazi collaborators and traitors. Strange ,bedfellows, indeed! The SloV1aks were not tlhe cause of this change of policy of the Magyar National Council, nor could they alter it. Of course, irt would be in the interest of the Magyars and the Slov:aks, as well as in the h'ig'hest interest of a better future of all the nations of Central Europe, if 1Jhe Magyar exile made an -e ffort to seek a more just and permanent soluili-o n of Cenrtral-European problems than that fur,c ed upon Central Europe, with the help of Czech poli'bicians, after the wars in 1918 and 1945 - the same solu1 16 SLOVAKIA ti!on now being promoted by the Council of Firee Czechoslovakia which is dominated by the Czechs for the Czechs. It is noteworthy, thougfu, that some Magyar exiles, grouped around the periodiicail Nemzetor, have seen through the fraud of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and are now on the right track toward solving the problems of • Centval Europe. But the Magy·a r National Council was not the on)y body indirectly aiding and aibetting Czech exiles and Czech tendencies. Magyar journalists and more or less known diplomats have also helped the Czech chauvinists. ]t is not easy to answer the question why they should write about the Slovak Republic so tendenciously, utterly disregarding facts and <listorting the truth. And this is all the more difficult to understand, because some of them wrote in suoh a fashion already a,s professors at American universities and their literary efforts are supposed to be scientific works. Objectively, as :far as 'the Slovaks were concerned, wenrt down the drain. Let's get down to cases. Andrew Gyovgy, assistant professor of potiticail sciences at Yale University, authored tJhe book "Governments of Danubian Europe" (Rinehart and Co., 1949). lit appears to be the best collection of the propaganda used by the Czech exiles during World War II; disregard for objectivity and reliability of sources is in full evidence in this conneotion. No less objective and anti-Slovak is the book "The Great Powers And Eastern Europe," authored by John A. Lukacs, (American Book Co., 1953). This book of 878 pages gives the impression of a serious work. As far as Slovakia is concerned, however, the most :fantastic falsehoods, half-1truths, and inaccwaoies of Czech propaganda are here repeated under tJhe guise of a scientific volume. The vrurious literary endeavors authored or edited by Professor Stephen D. Kert.esz of Notre Dame University unnecessarily characterize ilie S'1ovak Republic as "a German puppet State" and the Slovak Government as a "Nazi government." In the book "The Fate of East Central Europe" (Notre Dame Press, 1956), whic.h was edited by Dr. Kertesz, the chapter by Professor Robert H. Ferrell de- SLOVAKIA 17 monstrates that the author has little first-hand knowledge about the Slovaks and their country. The chapter by Ivo Duchacek is a glaring example of typical Czech propaganda, replete with inaccuracies, un-truths, and distortions of fact. The book "The Triumph of Tyranny," written by Steplien Borsody, perhaps tops all literary works in this regard. The author was brought up in Slovakia; he was a Magyar journalist of some note, then, after the war, a diplomat of the Budapest government; now he is teaching at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pa. What excuse is there for the anti-Slovak tendency of Borsody? Borsody's book is brilliantly written; it's aim is a new federative order in Central Europe. He takes an objectively negative stand toward the politics of Dr. Edward Benes, also to the deportation of the Magyars from Slovakia; on the whole he takes a sober outlook of the past and the necessity of a new solution of .the problems of Cen'tral Europe in the future. And yet, all objectivity seems to disappear when Borsody writes about the Slovak Republic. He was in Slovakia; he is acquainted with its problems, the will of the Slovak nation; and he had the facts firs't-hand. Why then did he resort to smearing the Slovaks and their country? This was not only not necessary, but also against the interests of the federative conception of Central Europe which Borsody defends so correctly and skillfully. Those who would deny the Slovaks their freedom and political independence demonstrate how little they value these very blessings for their own nations. What have the Czechs to ·g ain by joining Magyars who are opposed to the freedom and independence of the Slovaks? And vice-versa? How do Magyars and Czechs serve the ends of justice and democracy by denying to the Slovaks the very blessings of freedom which they claim for themselves? It is, the Slovaks believe, in the interests of all the nations of the Danubian Basin, nay, in the interests of all Europe, tha't the Slovaks be free of foreign and hostile rule and manage their own household. Exiles from European countries do harm to the cause of freedom and democracy when they deny the fruits of freedom to others; they are certa-inly not helping the. very cause they claim to represen't.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Magyar Exiles and Slovakia Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 14-17 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c0c29f35f38e18e769727286a469d9d8.pdf 26789962c72a9d57cb89eaef06ff226a PDF Text Text 18 SLOVAKIA CHURCHES IN A VISE Frances McPoyne It hias often been said that Czecho-Slovakia is Moscow's most obedient satellite. What is there a'b out this little nation that has earned for it such an uncomplimentary name 'i Is it by plan or mere accident that a Christian Westernoriented country should become such a loyal servant of :the Kremlin? To know and understand another people one must at least have an idea as to that people's language, history, music and its religious development. A little volume entitled Kirchen in der Zange (Churches in a Vise), published by the Munich University Press and Publishing House, Dr. C. Wolf and Son, one of a series on Central European Sources and Documents, d ~ exclusively with Czecho Slovakia and describes the plight of the churches in that country today. Czecho..Slovakia is territorially about as large as the State of New York. At its birth in 1919 it did not consist of one et!hnic people, the "Czechoslovaks," for there exists no such people. It contained Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and others. The census of 1930 gives the following breakdown: 7.2 million Czechs, 2.3 million Slovaks, 3.3 million Sudeten Germans (they were native to Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia and did ndt enter with Hitler in 1939), 550,000 Ukrainians, 700,000 Magyars, 190,000 Jews, 130,000 Poles and others. According to the same statistics the religious breakdown was 73.5 % Roman Caltholic, 7.6 % Evengelican Lutheran, 5.3 % Czech National Church (in Slovakia 0.4 % ), 2.4% Israelite, 5.4% ofiller and 5.8 % non-affil'iated. The Catholics in the present-day "People's Democratic" OSSR are estimated at 75 % of the population, the Evengeiicals at 8 % . For obvious reasons it is impossible to obtain a more exact tabulation. To rightly comprehend the situation, let it be said that feelings were generally drawn along nationality lines rather than on religious ones, even prior to the Communist putsch in Czecho-Slovakia. Such an attitude made it possible, for �SLOVAKIA 19 example, for the Slovak Catholic priest Andreas IIlinlm. . to win support not only among his co-religious fellowSlovaks but from the Sl ovak Protestants too. By the same token the Ca'tholic Slovaks never merged witJh tlhe Catholic Czechs to form a People's Party in the Prague Parliament. The 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten population, to cite a second example, repeatedly voted for Lutheran Pastor Gottfrid Wehrenfennig as the president of their Volksverein. It is important, therefore, to bear these nationaHty differences and tensions in mind when tracing the trend of politiool events in Czecho-Slovakia. • Due to the bitter feeling between Czechs and Germans at the close of World War II and due perhaps to certain pro-Slav leanings of the Czedh people, it was possi1ble for Czedh collaboration with the Communists to make a bolo public hand-shake in the form of a pastoral letter which welcomed the Czec'h two-year plan as "a road to happiness and prosperity for the fatherland" and urged the faithful to support it. A special event that shows how smoothly tJhe near Church-Communist betrothal was working out, was the consecration on December 8, 1946, of Joseph Beran, Archbishop of Prague and primate of Bohemia. No less a rrominent Communist than Premier Klement Gottwald not only attended the church ceremonies but followed the various steps in the consecration with prayerbook in hand and congratulated the archbishop in the name of the entire government. So convinced at the time was the archbishop of the chances for good Church-Communist relations that he made no attempt to counteract the decrees of Dr. EdvaTd Benes calling for the brutal expulsion from the land of all native Sudeten German inhabitants. The driving out of the 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten Germans was even acceded to by Primate Beran as "imperative." Not until tJhe draft of a new law seeking to nationalize the nation's schools did Archbishop Beran realize he had hitc'hed his wagon to the wrong star. His reaction was to try to effect a coalition of all the country's churches. When tihe government then confiscated all Church property and decided to give the clergy the sta1 �20 ::,LOVAKIA tus of any other governm ent employee, Beran issued a stateme nt - made on the heels of governm ent efforts to win the clergy for Commu nist Party member ship - in which he declared : "No Christia n and above all no priest dare align himself with an ideology that question s the existence of a soul or immorta lity." On May 10, 1948, a "uniform list" of candida tes for the revived Popular Front was drawn up, aimed to convince other countrie s that the Czech people had always been eager to embrace Commun ism. Gottwal d's cabinet did its utmost to win church support for that election campaign. 'Dhe head of the Orthodo x Church in the CSSR vehemenrtly stated that the casting of a white (inval'id) vote was tantamo unt to cowardl y flight from responsi bility for the future of the State. The Israelite Council called on its member s to vote for the Gottwa!ld Commu nist governm ent, believin g that it meant "a chance for quiet develop ment of the Jewish commun ity." The Central Council of the "Czechoslova k Church" declared : "It is the civil duty of every church member to vote so as to manifes t national unity." The election banner of the Evangel ical Bruderk irche was much more ,c onserva tive: "Let us strive for true unity in truth and justice." The Catholic Chul"ch refused to be misled by a tempora ry let-up in persecut ion of churchm en and refraine d from promisin g the regime its confidence. It simply declined to adopt any election slogan whatsoe ver. By Novemb er 1949, Archbis hop Beran had signed his last pastoral letter. On March 11, 1951, t'he Czeclh State police had taken him prisoner and silenced him perfuaps for all time. Parallel ing Beran's disappea rance came Sovietstyle "scare" tactics aimed at the clergy in general, with arrests and sentence s to prison. Not eager to create martyrs for either Luthera nism or Rome, the Communis'ts promised freedom to those it had interned provided they would march with the regime. In the meantim e properti es and building s of both Catholic and otJher denomin ations had been confisca ted, their building s turned into museum s or Commu nist headqua rters. In addition to the expropr iation of the clergy - a move thaJt not only meant materia l gains for the governm ent - an added blow had been �SLOVA KIA 21 struck design ed to make all men of the oloth mere tools of the State. Robbe d of their indepe ndence , they were to be reduce d to puppe ts by having to qualify for office on the same basis as all other public jobhol ders. Their salary, payme nt for lodgin g, and for the educat ion of their children in the case of the non-C atholic s, all were pll't on the level of State employ ees. The admin istrati on was to approve all appoin tments to office and be free to refuse a candid ate on "politi cal" ground . Such appoin ltment s are not valid accord ing to church law but it is relativ ely easy for the Red regime to fool a simple pavish ioner into bel'ieving that they are. In order to functio n as priest or preacih er, in church or other religio us society , the person in questi on must take an oath which reads : "I will suppo rt the govern ment with every means in my power ." Since the bishop s realize d that a segme nt of the priests would be accept ing govern ment pay they consen ted, approv ing the oath with the follow ing provis o: Insofa r as it would not conflic t with God's rights and Churc h rights. The bishop s themse lves decline d to accept State pay. How about religio us instruc tion in Czedh o-Slov akia? As such, it is not forbid den. It may on~y be given to those childre n, howev er, whose father s have submi tted a writte n reques t for it to the school princip al. Again the scare tactic is used, since fhe author ities know thaJt many a parent will refrain from submi tting such a petitio n lest pressu re be exert ed on him by P rty functio naries , threat ening loss of job or the like. A second type of scare tactic is tlhe fact that often the very person s selecte d to give tlhe religio us instruc tion are in reality loyal Comm unists. With the State reser~ ing the right to say who can or cannol t be priests and minist ers of the gospel , it will natura Hy choose for instruc tion in religio us doctrin e such clergy men who are willing to compr omise. Anoth er facet of the intimi dation tactic is the placin g in t'he path of those wlho remain loyal to tlheir religio us upbrin ging obstac les to their higher educat ion. The family attitud e itself is impor tant in mould ing the attitude of the child, and strong religio us familie s are natura lly consid ered a block to the spread ing of Comm unist ideas. �22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague � 18 SLOVAKIA CHURCHES IN A VISE Frances McPoyne It hias often been said that Czecho-Slovakia is Moscow's most obedient satellite. What is there a'b out this little nation that has earned for it such an uncomplimentary name 'i Is it by plan or mere accident that a Christian Westernoriented country should become such a loyal servant of :the Kremlin? To know and understand another people one must at least have an idea as to that people's language, history, music and its religious development. A little volume entitled Kirchen in der Zange (Churches in a Vise), published by the Munich University Press and Publishing House, Dr. C. Wolf and Son, one of a series on Central European Sources and Documents, d ~ exclusively with Czecho Slovakia and describes the plight of the churches in that country today. Czecho..Slovakia is territorially about as large as the State of New York. At its birth in 1919 it did not consist of one et!hnic people, the "Czechoslovaks," for there exists no such people. It contained Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and others. The census of 1930 gives the following breakdown: 7.2 million Czechs, 2.3 million Slovaks, 3.3 million Sudeten Germans (they were native to Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia and did ndt enter with Hitler in 1939), 550,000 Ukrainians, 700,000 Magyars, 190,000 Jews, 130,000 Poles and others. According to the same statistics the religious breakdown was 73.5 % Roman Caltholic, 7.6 % Evengelican Lutheran, 5.3 % Czech National Church (in Slovakia 0.4 % ), 2.4% Israelite, 5.4% ofiller and 5.8 % non-affil'iated. The Catholics in the present-day "People's Democratic" OSSR are estimated at 75 % of the population, the Evengeiicals at 8 % . For obvious reasons it is impossible to obtain a more exact tabulation. To rightly comprehend the situation, let it be said that feelings were generally drawn along nationality lines rather than on religious ones, even prior to the Communist putsch in Czecho-Slovakia. Such an attitude made it possible, for �SLOVAKIA 19 example, for the Slovak Catholic priest Andreas IIlinlm. . to win support not only among his co-religious fellowSlovaks but from the Sl ovak Protestants too. By the same token the Ca'tholic Slovaks never merged witJh tlhe Catholic Czechs to form a People's Party in the Prague Parliament. The 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten population, to cite a second example, repeatedly voted for Lutheran Pastor Gottfrid Wehrenfennig as the president of their Volksverein. It is important, therefore, to bear these nationaHty differences and tensions in mind when tracing the trend of politiool events in Czecho-Slovakia. • Due to the bitter feeling between Czechs and Germans at the close of World War II and due perhaps to certain pro-Slav leanings of the Czedh people, it was possi1ble for Czedh collaboration with the Communists to make a bolo public hand-shake in the form of a pastoral letter which welcomed the Czec'h two-year plan as "a road to happiness and prosperity for the fatherland" and urged the faithful to support it. A special event that shows how smoothly tJhe near Church-Communist betrothal was working out, was the consecration on December 8, 1946, of Joseph Beran, Archbishop of Prague and primate of Bohemia. No less a rrominent Communist than Premier Klement Gottwald not only attended the church ceremonies but followed the various steps in the consecration with prayerbook in hand and congratulated the archbishop in the name of the entire government. So convinced at the time was the archbishop of the chances for good Church-Communist relations that he made no attempt to counteract the decrees of Dr. EdvaTd Benes calling for the brutal expulsion from the land of all native Sudeten German inhabitants. The driving out of the 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten Germans was even acceded to by Primate Beran as "imperative." Not until tJhe draft of a new law seeking to nationalize the nation's schools did Archbishop Beran realize he had hitc'hed his wagon to the wrong star. His reaction was to try to effect a coalition of all the country's churches. When tihe government then confiscated all Church property and decided to give the clergy the sta1 �20 ::,LOVAKIA tus of any other governm ent employee, Beran issued a stateme nt - made on the heels of governm ent efforts to win the clergy for Commu nist Party member ship - in which he declared : "No Christia n and above all no priest dare align himself with an ideology that question s the existence of a soul or immorta lity." On May 10, 1948, a "uniform list" of candida tes for the revived Popular Front was drawn up, aimed to convince other countrie s that the Czech people had always been eager to embrace Commun ism. Gottwal d's cabinet did its utmost to win church support for that election campaign. 'Dhe head of the Orthodo x Church in the CSSR vehemenrtly stated that the casting of a white (inval'id) vote was tantamo unt to cowardl y flight from responsi bility for the future of the State. The Israelite Council called on its member s to vote for the Gottwa!ld Commu nist governm ent, believin g that it meant "a chance for quiet develop ment of the Jewish commun ity." The Central Council of the "Czechoslova k Church" declared : "It is the civil duty of every church member to vote so as to manifes t national unity." The election banner of the Evangel ical Bruderk irche was much more ,c onserva tive: "Let us strive for true unity in truth and justice." The Catholic Chul"ch refused to be misled by a tempora ry let-up in persecut ion of churchm en and refraine d from promisin g the regime its confidence. It simply declined to adopt any election slogan whatsoe ver. By Novemb er 1949, Archbis hop Beran had signed his last pastoral letter. On March 11, 1951, t'he Czeclh State police had taken him prisoner and silenced him perfuaps for all time. Parallel ing Beran's disappea rance came Sovietstyle "scare" tactics aimed at the clergy in general, with arrests and sentence s to prison. Not eager to create martyrs for either Luthera nism or Rome, the Communis'ts promised freedom to those it had interned provided they would march with the regime. In the meantim e properti es and building s of both Catholic and otJher denomin ations had been confisca ted, their building s turned into museum s or Commu nist headqua rters. In addition to the expropr iation of the clergy - a move thaJt not only meant materia l gains for the governm ent - an added blow had been �SLOVA KIA 21 struck design ed to make all men of the oloth mere tools of the State. Robbe d of their indepe ndence , they were to be reduce d to puppe ts by having to qualify for office on the same basis as all other public jobhol ders. Their salary, payme nt for lodgin g, and for the educat ion of their children in the case of the non-C atholic s, all were pll't on the level of State employ ees. The admin istrati on was to approve all appoin tments to office and be free to refuse a candid ate on "politi cal" ground . Such appoin ltment s are not valid accord ing to church law but it is relativ ely easy for the Red regime to fool a simple pavish ioner into bel'ieving that they are. In order to functio n as priest or preacih er, in church or other religio us society , the person in questi on must take an oath which reads : "I will suppo rt the govern ment with every means in my power ." Since the bishop s realize d that a segme nt of the priests would be accept ing govern ment pay they consen ted, approv ing the oath with the follow ing provis o: Insofa r as it would not conflic t with God's rights and Churc h rights. The bishop s themse lves decline d to accept State pay. How about religio us instruc tion in Czedh o-Slov akia? As such, it is not forbid den. It may on~y be given to those childre n, howev er, whose father s have submi tted a writte n reques t for it to the school princip al. Again the scare tactic is used, since fhe author ities know thaJt many a parent will refrain from submi tting such a petitio n lest pressu re be exert ed on him by P rty functio naries , threat ening loss of job or the like. A second type of scare tactic is tlhe fact that often the very person s selecte d to give tlhe religio us instruc tion are in reality loyal Comm unists. With the State reser~ ing the right to say who can or cannol t be priests and minist ers of the gospel , it will natura Hy choose for instruc tion in religio us doctrin e such clergy men who are willing to compr omise. Anoth er facet of the intimi dation tactic is the placin g in t'he path of those wlho remain loyal to tlheir religio us upbrin ging obstac les to their higher educat ion. The family attitud e itself is impor tant in mould ing the attitude of the child, and strong religio us familie s are natura lly consid ered a block to the spread ing of Comm unist ideas. �22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 18 SLOVAKIA CHURCHES IN A VISE Frances McPoyne It hias often been said that Czecho-Slovakia is Moscow's most obedient satellite. What is there a'b out this little nation that has earned for it such an uncomplimentary name 'i Is it by plan or mere accident that a Christian Westernoriented country should become such a loyal servant of :the Kremlin? To know and understand another people one must at least have an idea as to that people's language, history, music and its religious development. A little volume entitled Kirchen in der Zange (Churches in a Vise), published by the Munich University Press and Publishing House, Dr. C. Wolf and Son, one of a series on Central European Sources and Documents, d ~ exclusively with Czecho Slovakia and describes the plight of the churches in that country today. Czecho..Slovakia is territorially about as large as the State of New York. At its birth in 1919 it did not consist of one et!hnic people, the "Czechoslovaks," for there exists no such people. It contained Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and others. The census of 1930 gives the following breakdown: 7.2 million Czechs, 2.3 million Slovaks, 3.3 million Sudeten Germans (they were native to Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia and did ndt enter with Hitler in 1939), 550,000 Ukrainians, 700,000 Magyars, 190,000 Jews, 130,000 Poles and others. According to the same statistics the religious breakdown was 73.5 % Roman Caltholic, 7.6 % Evengelican Lutheran, 5.3 % Czech National Church (in Slovakia 0.4 % ), 2.4% Israelite, 5.4% ofiller and 5.8 % non-affil'iated. The Catholics in the present-day "People's Democratic" OSSR are estimated at 75 % of the population, the Evengeiicals at 8 % . For obvious reasons it is impossible to obtain a more exact tabulation. To rightly comprehend the situation, let it be said that feelings were generally drawn along nationality lines rather than on religious ones, even prior to the Communist putsch in Czecho-Slovakia. Such an attitude made it possible, for SLOVAKIA 19 example, for the Slovak Catholic priest Andreas IIlinlm. . to win support not only among his co-religious fellowSlovaks but from the Sl ovak Protestants too. By the same token the Ca'tholic Slovaks never merged witJh tlhe Catholic Czechs to form a People's Party in the Prague Parliament. The 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten population, to cite a second example, repeatedly voted for Lutheran Pastor Gottfrid Wehrenfennig as the president of their Volksverein. It is important, therefore, to bear these nationaHty differences and tensions in mind when tracing the trend of politiool events in Czecho-Slovakia. • Due to the bitter feeling between Czechs and Germans at the close of World War II and due perhaps to certain pro-Slav leanings of the Czedh people, it was possi1ble for Czedh collaboration with the Communists to make a bolo public hand-shake in the form of a pastoral letter which welcomed the Czec'h two-year plan as "a road to happiness and prosperity for the fatherland" and urged the faithful to support it. A special event that shows how smoothly tJhe near Church-Communist betrothal was working out, was the consecration on December 8, 1946, of Joseph Beran, Archbishop of Prague and primate of Bohemia. No less a rrominent Communist than Premier Klement Gottwald not only attended the church ceremonies but followed the various steps in the consecration with prayerbook in hand and congratulated the archbishop in the name of the entire government. So convinced at the time was the archbishop of the chances for good Church-Communist relations that he made no attempt to counteract the decrees of Dr. EdvaTd Benes calling for the brutal expulsion from the land of all native Sudeten German inhabitants. The driving out of the 92 % Roman Catholic Sudeten Germans was even acceded to by Primate Beran as "imperative." Not until tJhe draft of a new law seeking to nationalize the nation's schools did Archbishop Beran realize he had hitc'hed his wagon to the wrong star. His reaction was to try to effect a coalition of all the country's churches. When tihe government then confiscated all Church property and decided to give the clergy the sta1 20 ::,LOVAKIA tus of any other governm ent employee, Beran issued a stateme nt - made on the heels of governm ent efforts to win the clergy for Commu nist Party member ship - in which he declared : "No Christia n and above all no priest dare align himself with an ideology that question s the existence of a soul or immorta lity." On May 10, 1948, a "uniform list" of candida tes for the revived Popular Front was drawn up, aimed to convince other countrie s that the Czech people had always been eager to embrace Commun ism. Gottwal d's cabinet did its utmost to win church support for that election campaign. 'Dhe head of the Orthodo x Church in the CSSR vehemenrtly stated that the casting of a white (inval'id) vote was tantamo unt to cowardl y flight from responsi bility for the future of the State. The Israelite Council called on its member s to vote for the Gottwa!ld Commu nist governm ent, believin g that it meant "a chance for quiet develop ment of the Jewish commun ity." The Central Council of the "Czechoslova k Church" declared : "It is the civil duty of every church member to vote so as to manifes t national unity." The election banner of the Evangel ical Bruderk irche was much more ,c onserva tive: "Let us strive for true unity in truth and justice." The Catholic Chul"ch refused to be misled by a tempora ry let-up in persecut ion of churchm en and refraine d from promisin g the regime its confidence. It simply declined to adopt any election slogan whatsoe ver. By Novemb er 1949, Archbis hop Beran had signed his last pastoral letter. On March 11, 1951, t'he Czeclh State police had taken him prisoner and silenced him perfuaps for all time. Parallel ing Beran's disappea rance came Sovietstyle "scare" tactics aimed at the clergy in general, with arrests and sentence s to prison. Not eager to create martyrs for either Luthera nism or Rome, the Communis'ts promised freedom to those it had interned provided they would march with the regime. In the meantim e properti es and building s of both Catholic and otJher denomin ations had been confisca ted, their building s turned into museum s or Commu nist headqua rters. In addition to the expropr iation of the clergy - a move thaJt not only meant materia l gains for the governm ent - an added blow had been SLOVA KIA 21 struck design ed to make all men of the oloth mere tools of the State. Robbe d of their indepe ndence , they were to be reduce d to puppe ts by having to qualify for office on the same basis as all other public jobhol ders. Their salary, payme nt for lodgin g, and for the educat ion of their children in the case of the non-C atholic s, all were pll't on the level of State employ ees. The admin istrati on was to approve all appoin tments to office and be free to refuse a candid ate on "politi cal" ground . Such appoin ltment s are not valid accord ing to church law but it is relativ ely easy for the Red regime to fool a simple pavish ioner into bel'ieving that they are. In order to functio n as priest or preacih er, in church or other religio us society , the person in questi on must take an oath which reads : "I will suppo rt the govern ment with every means in my power ." Since the bishop s realize d that a segme nt of the priests would be accept ing govern ment pay they consen ted, approv ing the oath with the follow ing provis o: Insofa r as it would not conflic t with God's rights and Churc h rights. The bishop s themse lves decline d to accept State pay. How about religio us instruc tion in Czedh o-Slov akia? As such, it is not forbid den. It may on~y be given to those childre n, howev er, whose father s have submi tted a writte n reques t for it to the school princip al. Again the scare tactic is used, since fhe author ities know thaJt many a parent will refrain from submi tting such a petitio n lest pressu re be exert ed on him by P rty functio naries , threat ening loss of job or the like. A second type of scare tactic is tlhe fact that often the very person s selecte d to give tlhe religio us instruc tion are in reality loyal Comm unists. With the State reser~ ing the right to say who can or cannol t be priests and minist ers of the gospel , it will natura Hy choose for instruc tion in religio us doctrin e such clergy men who are willing to compr omise. Anoth er facet of the intimi dation tactic is the placin g in t'he path of those wlho remain loyal to tlheir religio us upbrin ging obstac les to their higher educat ion. The family attitud e itself is impor tant in mould ing the attitude of the child, and strong religio us familie s are natura lly consid ered a block to the spread ing of Comm unist ideas. 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Churches in a Vise Description An account of the resource Frances McPoyne Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 18-22 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McPoyne, Frances Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c3f59e7ccb975d9ac93cafcf6e82b3e2.pdf 73303a198b6cff05e4d97911f95a6382 PDF Text Text 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague �SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their �24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR. � 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague �SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their �24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their 24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource New Strictures on Beneš Description An account of the resource Karl Kern Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 22-24 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kern, Karl Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/886167ef1a1fc77e9d8743d1aaad0299.pdf c029e6819c860e30343fced3a673dbfa PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2."i CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES IN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. A reprint from SLAVIC AND E1AST EUROPEAN STUDIES Vol. IV, Part 3-4, Published by the University of Montreal, Department of Slavic Studies. A bibliographic review of Slovak linguistics and philology show that, in the la-st twenty years, philology in Slovakia has experienced an all round development and progress and is developing, both quantitatively and qualitatitvely, comparatively undisturbed, even since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet cultural and political sphere of influence. A complete picture of the contemporary state of Slovak phildlogy would require, of course, thorough research not only into the development of philology in Slovakia, which is exposed to Russian and Czech cultural influences, but also into that of the countries of the free world, where a comparatively large number of cultural and scientific workers use the Slovak language. For both ringuist and philologist such a research project would be interesting not only because in scores of Slovak periodicals and books, which are published in the free world, there are traces of the inrfluence of tihe Romance and the Anglo-Saxon languages, particularly in the syntax, but a research would be of interest also because in the free world, there were published several philological studies in which two tendencies are quite evident. The first tendency rejeets orthographic changes in the Slovak language; the second, representing the majority of cultural workers, at the recommendation of the leading Slovak philologist, Professor Henry Bartek, accepted in principle the orfuographic changes which were instituted by the philologists in Slovakia from the time of the Czecho-Russian occupation. However, the framework of this study is limited to research into the Soviet orbit and, therefore, we forego at this time, a research into the development of Slovak philology in the countries of the free world, even though some works of H. Bartek, Philip Hrobak, Joseph Konus, and others, �26 SLOVAKIA warrant the attention of a wider circle of Slavists. The following outline of the contemporary state of Slovak philology concerns itself only with the development in Slovakia. Sovietophil Tendencies and Their Extent As with literature and science, in general, philology, too, has been exposed, since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet sphere of influence, to political pressure by the Communist Party and is, therefore, gradually developing with considerable dependence on Soviet philology. This occurs particularly through the influence of some cultural workers who were elevated by the present regime to positions of importance in Slovak cultural life because of :their partisan adherence rather than their past scientific performances or professional qualifications. These "cultural commissioner s" from the very beginning tried to adapt to Slovak philology "the theoretical directives which were given Marxist philology by J. V. Stalin in his genial works Marxism and Problems of Linguistics and Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S. S. R.(1). However, a considerable number of true philologists ad!hered, in the first place, to scientific principles. The barefaced efforts to align Slovak philology with "the Marxist directives" and subjugate it to the contemvorary political regime come to light particularly in the introduction to the new Rules of Slovak Orthography (Pravidla. slovenskeho pravopisu), published in 1953. The editor-in-Chief, Dr. Stefan Peciar, and the majority of the members of the commission which prepared fue Rules, received their education and matured scientifically either in the bourgeois Czedho-Slovak Republic or between 19391945 in the Slovak Republic, but in the introduction to their work, which otherwise "in substance did not change the present orthography and its basic principle," according to their own admission, they deemed it necessary to pay homage to Stalin and to attack fue philologists who prepared the Rules of orthography in 1940. It would certainly be quite superfluous to try to prove bhat Marxism belongs to the sphere of political and social sciences, and that serious scholars know as yet neither "the �SLOVAKIA 27 Marxist philology ," nor the Marxist scientific method or principle in linguistic s and philology , but only the political and unscientif ic interferen ce by the regimes which subscribe to the Marx-Eng els' or Lenin's political and economic theories. In the same manner, philology does not recognize fascist principles in philology and linguistic s, which principles some of the contempo rary linguists in Slovakia are attemptin g to discover in the works of their predecessors or contempo raries living in the countries of the free world. Needless to say thaJt they are attemptin g to discover such "fascist" principles not on the basis of scholarly researoh, but in an effort to perform a service for the present political regime. There are, therefore , no serious suppositi ons in Slovakia that some "Marxist point of view" even if such a thing existed, could already have asserted itself in Slovak philology. The review of names of the scholarly active philologists shows that they are the ones with whom we have been familiar, particula rly during the period of the Slovak Republic. The bibliogra phy of philology in Slovakia of the years 1939-47 (2) serves as evidence that Dr. Peciar, as well as Dr. Pauliny, Jona, Horecky, Ruzicka, and others, grew intellectu ally and created mainly during the existence of the Slovak Republic; and, that while some of them could have been reproach ed during the Second World War for trying to bring into Slovak philology the Czech philological theories (see the polemic Peciar-U hlar in the pereoldical "Slovensk a rec" (Slovak Languag e), there was no ndticeabl e attempt at transferr ing the Russian philologic al theories. The generatio n educated under the present regime is sUll too young to make any serious contribut ion to scholarsh ip or science, as the attainme nt of a universit y degree does not signify scientific qualificat ion, but rather the confirma tion of the ability to undertak e scientific or scholarly work. Therefore , we find predomin ating even in the Bibliography of Slovak Philology for the Years 1948-1952 , compiled by Dr. Ladislav Dvonc, the names which became known during the previous period. Dvonc's bibliogra phy is a sequel to Elana.r's bibliogra phy, and in its 1500 entries �28 SLOVAKIA it deals with: 1. all linguistic contributions published in Slovakia; 2. contributions by Slovak philologists and linguists in non-Slovak periodicals; and 3. contributions of non-Slovak au1Jhors on Slovak language or their pholological works published in Slovakia. Results of a favorable development of Slovak philology are visible in Dvonc's bibliography not only in the number of entries (1500 within four years), but also in the number of fields covered. Slovak philology is no more restricted to reseavch into and perfection of the Slovak language alone. There is also a comparatively large number of works, studies, and articles on general linguistics, Indo-European languages, general Slavonic philology and linguistics, on artificial languages and on the organization of scholarly work in the field of philology and linguistics. Soviet pressure or impact of Soviet philology appears particularly in the group "General philology" which contains 79 entries, mostly translations from Russian or works of Slovak lesser linguists on Soviet and Marxist philology and Stalin's theories. Only three of the known Slovak philologists (Peciar, Horecky and Jona) take part in the Soviet attempt to impose "Marxist and Stalinist linguistic theories" upon Slovak philology. The most aggressive propagator of "Marxist philology," Alexander Isacenko, was broug,ht up in Slovakia as a son of White Russian emigres. He pays his debts now to Slovakia, which saved him and even gave him a university chair during the war, by serving Soviet aims as their most docile and obedient tool. (See his "Geniail contributions to t'he theory of Marx-Leninism" - For a Marxist Philology" - "An important discussion on philology in the Soviet Union," etc.). As for the Slovanic philology, it was dealt with in Slovakia, during the four years in question, in 229 entries. Slovak, and in translations foreign and other Slav scholars (Lehr-Splawinski, E. Knisza, Weingart, Dvozdec, Vinogradov, Pankevyc, Barchudarov) covered the field of Old Church Slovanic, Russian, Polish, Czech, and other Slovanic languages. Among Slovak philologists, the mos:t prolific and scholarly, according to the western standards, �SLOVAKIA 29 appears to be prof. Jan Stanislav (Polish and SouthernSlav philology) . Scholarly research into the Slovak language is, of course, still the principal field of interest. The number of works, studies and articles, referring to the Slovak language, its history and development, is close to 700, many of them written by highly qualified philologists and linguists either of Slovak or foreign origin (J. Stanislav, L. Novak, E. Pauliny, V. Uhlar, A. Janosik, S. Peciar, J. Horecky, V. Blanar, E. Jona, Kniesza, Vazny, Kuraly, Stieber, etc.). They cover the history of literary languages in Slovakia, historical grammar and historical dialectology, etymology, phonology, orthography, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Attack on Purism and Advocation of Slovanic Orientation The fact that Marxist methods are not considered seriously, even by the linguists who advocate them, is shown in the review of philological works published several years ago, as well as by the predominant condemnation of only those philologists who prepared the Rules of Slovak Orthography, in 1940. The older linguists, from Anthony Bernolak to Samuel Czambel, are highly esteemed; in fact, in certain instances, they are esteemed more highly than they were by the now proscribed philologists and literary historians of the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic (3). For example, in the introduction to the new Rules, we read the following: "A significant role in the perfection of the Slovak language was played by our national awakeners. They discovered the internal criteria of tJhe Slovak language, formulated then and laid strong foundations for our literary language and our lingual culture. Anton Bernolak took the first steps towards the stabilization of the Slovak literary language, its ovthography, morphology, and vocabulary. For stabilizing the Slovak literary language in its present form, and particularly its morphology and orthography, Martin Hattala and Samo Czambel and others are mainly responsible." ( 4). Among the classicists of Slovak literature, who "enriched, developed, and strengthened" the Slovak language, the "Marxist" commission also includes Jan Holly who, �30 SLOVAKIA with Berndlak and Hatta-la, was also a Catholic priest and who (together with the above-ment ioned) is credited with what even today is often reproachfu lly called "Slovak linguistic separatism " in English and French books, particuiarly if such books were inspired by Czech politicians or scholars. The attack on the philologists who compiled the Rules of 1940 is obviously p<Yliticaily motivaJted. The servants of the present communist regime in Slovakia condemn the compiler•s of the previous Rules, first, because they were supposedly "the servants of Eudak (Populist) separatism and went out of their way to mee't the demands of the treacherou s politicians, " and only in the second place, because "they strived to remove literary Sfovak as far as possible from Czech and to isolate it also from other Slovanic languages. " In other words, they were "puristicall y oriented" and marked the Rules with "a puristical tendency." However, the changes which have been made in Slovak orthograph y, and the review of the ph!ilological studies of the past few years, do not testify to the fact that the present "Marxist" philologists have very substantial ly removed themselves from "the purists" or that they have approached closer to Czech or other Slovanic languages, with the exception of the Russian language. The entire evolutionary line of Slovak philology - the founders of which were the national awakeners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who had to defend the Slovak language against Hungarian assimilator y tendencies and the nationalistica lly oriented linguists and philologists of the last decades of this century, for whom it was necessary to defend the Slovak language against no less dangerous Czech tendencies - has not yet been too remarkably dented by contempor ary philologists in Slovakia. The thesis that the Slovak language tended to develop as a separate Slovanic language after the disappeara nce of the Old Slovanic language - and that the attempts to make it one of the dialects of the Czech language must only be considered as unscientific and political tendencies and aspirations - is practically proved by the scholarly works of the contempor ary �SLOVAKIA 31 philologists with alil the weight and consistency of methods which cannot be la:beled unscientific. In harmony with the general cultural growth of the Slovak nation, Slovak philology develops in scope and depth. During 1939-1945 alone over a thousand works, treatises, articles, and studies in the field of philology were published. The linguists and philologists did not concern themselves merely with research into and the stabilization of the Slovak language, but also with the wider problems of linguistics and ph'ilology, Slovanic and non-Slovanic IndoEuropean languages, and with tihe general philology (5) . During the war, there already was evident a promising development which was made in the formaition of Slovak scientific and technical terminology, particularly in the scientific disciplines and in the technical-economic sphere of Slovak life(6). The contemporary philologists continue diligently in this "purism," and Slovak scientific and technical terminology has, in the past few years, been considerably enriched by the newly-coined or adapted terms of other Slovanic languages, particularly Russian. Objectivity warrants the admission that the works of Slovak philologists are comparatively extensive; that the number of published books, studies and treatises in periodicals is considerable; and that the fields of scientific research are numerous. In the interest of truth, however, it is also necessary to add that this growth of scholarly works has no relation to, and is not to be credited to the contemporary political regime. Regardless of what regime might exist today in Slovakia, there would inevitably be more achievement in science, culture and arts than ever before. The explanation is to be found in the general development of Slovakia in the last forty years and particularly in the fact that, in the last years of the so-called bourgeois Czecho-Slovak Republic and especially during the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic, a large number of young S'lovaks studied in universities at home and abroad, not only the traditional disciplines - theology, law, and medicine - but the entire field of science. The inclusion of Slovakia i.nlto the Soviet orbit befell them in the years of their scientific productivity or in their years of �32 SLOVAKIA university studies. If, today, in Slovakia, more is produced and published in philology or in other scientific fields, it is because the Slovak nation reached that stage of development at which there are found entire cadres of scientific and culutral workers. These cadres are so large that, even after the departure of thousands into exile, it is possible today to publish in Slovakia more books than ever before in all fields of science. The communist regime, in certain respects, by the limitation of freedom alone, holds back scientific work, and supports development only of those fields in which the political aims of the Communist Party can be pursued. Philology is, for the communist regime, a neutral rather than a privileged field. As far as the linguistic side of the Slovak language is concerned, in :the Rules as in other works, there appears a trend towards a more consistent use of the principles of phonetic orthogr&phy and towards the simplification of writing Slovak and foreign expressions. In philological production alone there are represented dialectology, lexicology, comparative philology, morphology, phonology, orthoepy, phonetics, etc. Several works deal with questions of the Cyrilo--Methodian period, the development of philology in other Slovanic nations (Russia, Bulgaria) and the history of the Slovak language. A scholarly level has been attained, first of all, by the works of older linguists and philologists, but the possession of the qualifications and preparation for the professional philological work is evident in a large number of younger intellectuals, particularly in their criticism, polemics and commentaries on the new editions of older literary or philological works (for instance, in the introductions to the new editions of the works of Bernolak, Holly, Stur, etc.). End of the Controversy Regarding Literary Slovak and the Origin of the Slovak Language From the published works of philologists and literary historians it is also obvious t'hat the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, Czechoslovak) in Slovak literature, which theses �SLOVAKIA were intended to support the political theses of a single Czechoslovak nation, have been definitely buried. In this respect, even some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scientific conclusions which have long been defended by Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy, on the Czech side is the work of Professor A. Dostal (7), and on the Slovak side, Pauliny's "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948 (8) , and Mraz's "Dejiny slovenskej literatiiry" - History of Slovak Literature, Bra'tislava, 1948(9) , as well as the papers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, particularly, the paper of Professor E. Pauliny on "Bilingualism in the History of the Slovak Literary Language," de-serves special at'tention. Papliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in S'lovakfa in the 15th and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who did not apply "Marxist criteria" in philology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not stand compe'tition with the Slovak vernacular when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness: though the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the 19th century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majorit y a whole century before that time. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is therefore, even according to Pauliny, that of bilingualism (p. 43). A century-long controversy, as to whether Slovak is but a dialect of the Czech language, or a dis'tinct Slovanic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both the Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia. By a careful analysis of the fundamenital roots of both languages, Czech and Slovak, as well as through a comparative study of their later developments, contemporary scholars trained in philology have revealed the true basis of the Slovak language and have clas- �34 SLOVAKIA sified it properly as one of distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearance of the Old Slovanic language. The controversy was occasioned by two facts. On the one hand, some literary historians made no distinction between the language spoken by the Slovaks as their native tongue and 'their literary medium. The latter for some time wa:s (besides Latin) the old Czech liturgical language. On the other hand, most of the philo'logists and literary historians, predominantly of Czech origin, in formulating purely scientific views as to the proper relationship between the Czech and Slovak languages, were influenced by political aspira!tions. Recent studies based on scientific principles of philology, phonology, etymology lexicography, and grammar now show that the original Slovak terminology, wJth rare exceptions, goes back to the original roots of a native Slovak language essentially distinct from every other Slovanic tongue. The confusion created by the failure to draw a proper distinction between the native language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language was, however, only partly responsible for the erroneous view that Slovak was merely a dialect of the Czech language or that there was something like a "Czechoslovak language" (10). Theories on the existence of a "Czechoslovak language" were creat ed even after one hundred years of the existence of the Slovak literary language which was accepted by both Slovak Catholics and Lutherans in 1844, and after two hundred years' use by the Catholics of their own vernacular as the literary medium around the University of Trnava, founded in 1635. Consequently, the main reason for the confusion was of a political nature, even if presented in "scientific" form. Professor F. Travnicek, for instance, used geography as his main argument for his theory of the "Czechoslovak language." The fact that the Czechs and Slovaks inhabited the present area from the sixth century was used by him as an argumen1t that they had a common ,l anguage. In his "ffistoricka mluvnice ceskoslovenska" (Historic Czechoslovak Grammar) he stated: "The ancient Czechoslovak language lasted from the time of its inde- �SLOVAKIA 35 pendent establishment as a full-fledged language, from the siJd:h to the end of the tenth century, and is similar to the prehistoric tongue. The chief condition of this independent development was that our ancestors were separated geographically from the rest of the Slavs" (11). Geographical factors can hardly take precedence over linguistic data, and even if we accept this theory, another factor, the separation of Czechs and Siovaks from the ninth century, would be in favor of an independent development of the Slovak spoken tongue. Slovak philologists and linguists Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Sttanislav, Novak, etc. (12) rejected, therefore the Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic form,s of the Slovak tongue and, by linguistic methods of phonology as we11 as by a comparative study, they arrived at new conclusions as to the origin and development of the S'lovak language. These conclusions were ultimately accepted by contemporary Czech as well as other Slovanic philologists and linguists (13). As a result of this development the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a refation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into the Slovak, and vice versa, as the Polish or Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long ~ime ago, and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and phi'lologists to recognize the irrefutable. REFERENCES (1) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, Brat islava, Slov,e nska akadeania vied, 1953, p. 7. (2) IDr. Vincent Blanar: Bibliografia jazykovedy na Slovensku v rokoch 1939-1947, Bratislava, Slovensika a1~ademia vied a umeni, 195'0, p. 210. This work ,contaiins 11,17 titles, Olf which aipprox.ilmatel,y 1000 were pulblished dudrug the existen-ce Olf the Slovak R~bl!i.'c . .Altogether Blanar presents an almost complete picture of Ling,ud,stic and philological w<ll'ks, pwblished in boo!k form or in periodicals, in the fiields olf ,g eneral philiodog,y, comparative linguistiics Olf lndoEuirQPean languages, Sl'O'Vanic philology and! the stu~ Olf the Slova!k lairugua,ge. See al!so Dr. L. Dvonc:1Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy za roky 1948-1952, Matica Slovenska, 1957. �36 SLOVAKIA (3) See, for examI?:le, the eval,uartion o.f U. Stur as a philo1o,gist in the book "l!udovit Stur, Slovencina" nasa," which was prepared and annotated by Dr. J. Ambms and has been evaliwa1ted lirug,uirstdlcailily by Dr. V. Blanar. According to Blanar, Stur kept pa,ce with the European philologic:d schools o.f that time and its foremosrt ip·h enomena, a,n d his studies at Hal!le predestined him to beco,me, in Slovanic and Slovaik cir,cwmstances, one of the frrst representatives of the newest methods on theories in phi'lology. (4) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, p. 6. Anton Bemo'1ak 01762--1813) codified the Slovak literary lang,ua,ge as used by the Slovak Catholics from tJhe time of the co-uniter-Reformation and esipeoi,a,1ly since .16315, the year Olf the fo.u,ndatJion of the second university in Slovakia. at Trnaiva. Bernolak gaive a solid fowndati-on to the Slovak literary .l!anguag,e, based on the Western Sllovaik dialecrt, in hiis works: Disserta,t io philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum : Linguae slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae usitatae compendiosa simul at facilis o,rthographia" (Bra1tislava, 1'7'3171); "Grammatica slavica" (1790), and in his huge pentalingual dictionary, pu1blished after his deatih, in 1825. Marbin Hattala (1821-1903'), who later became a professor at the University of Praigue, codid'ied the reform in'1:rod1uced by U. Stur, which was a,o cepted in, 1844 by both Slovak Oatholiics and Protestants. His "Kratka mluvnica slovenska" CShor.t Slovak Gr•aimlillar), p,wblished in 1852, gaive a scientific bas-is and for:m to Stur's reform. Saimuel Czaimbel (1856-1 909), one o.f the greatest Slovak philologists, enniiched Sl,o vak phi,lol1ogy by seveml scholarly wo·r'ks regardiillg dialectology, monphology, and lexicol-o,gy. His main woriks are "Slovensky pravopis" (Slovak Orithogra-phy, 1890) and "Rukovat' spisovnej reci slovenskej " QManual of the Slovalk Liternry Larug-uage, 1-902). For detai:ls concernirug Bernolak, Haittaila, and Czaimbel, see Prof. E. Pauliny: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny." (5) Colillipare V. Blanar: Biblografia. (6) Pioneer and valuable worik iin, this d'i rection was done partLcularliy by Professor Dr. Jul iius Led enyi-La1d ziansky in the termino:lo.gy o.f medical science. (7) Prof. Dr. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, Prague, Statni pedagogicke naildiadatelstvi, 1:954. (8) (Prof. Dr. Eugen Pa,Ulliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bratisl-aiva, S1ovenska akadem!iia, vied a umeni, 19418. In the introduction to his book, Pa-wliny understands the history o.f the 1-angu,age as the history Olf the oriigin, disaippear ance and cha,n,ges Olf its i,ndi'Vidua1l styles. Ho:wever, in the book i ts-elf, he d'ivide:d the his-tor-y of the Slovak 1iitera['y laruguage accord!i,u,g to the languages which wer e used ,by the Slov,aiks as literary la~ua,ges in addition to the sipoken vern,a,culiar from the time of the Gr eater Moravia•. On page 5, he writes: "Al,thouglh, in this case, the p er,iod of the actual Sll,ovaik litera['y laillguaige ca,n. begin only with Bernolak, or with t he p eriod shortly befor e Bemolak, nevertheless it is not poss,iJble to begin the history of t he literary languages of the Slovaks either with Bernolak or Stur, but it is ,n,ecessa,r,y t,o go deep into 1Jhe pa st, aH the way to the ver y begin nings o.f the histor iical p er iod o.f our na-ti-on in the Gr eater Moravian epoch, na,y, in ceritain matters, it is ,necessary to go even 1 1 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 37 further, into the pre-histork period, when our ancestors were not yet baptized and did not particiiPate im, the European cul<ture whiich was introduced to us by Chrisit-iani:ty." (9) Prof. A. Mraz: Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Braitisfava, Slovenska akademia vied a UJ!l1eni, 1948. (lJl) F . Travnicek: Historicka mluvnice ceskoslovenska, Brno, 1935, p. 21-23. (10) This thesis wa,s propa•g ated by Dr. Ed'Uard Benes throurg h his pUJblication Detruisez I' Autriche, Paris, 11916, and, with the helip of Czech philologists, it penetrated also inito many western university oiTcles and was reoeated by the Slavists on this continent a·s well. (13) Besides aiuthors of Slovak origin, (Hrobak, Konus, Potocek, and others), the correct attitude towards the Slovak lang;uage, in the Englislh lan!guage works, was taken particUilarly by Professor Alfred Senn in the syunrposi,um A Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L. I. Strakhovsky, Camlbridlge, Massachu,s etts, Harvard UnLversity Press, 1949. (12) Profiessor Bartek pub1'ished, boith in Slovakia and in exiile, a numlber of prul. 0Iogica1! wo,r ks, S'Ome Off w,h ich were piulblished i,n, French and Eng-lish. Elana.r"s "Bibliografia" cites thirteen titles of his works. 'Ilhe best known philologists, besides B'artek, are S-tanislav and Novak. StaniS'lav is known parti<cUilarliy for his research i,n,to the OyriJoJMethodian period and for his works in toponyimy. Novak was siJenced by the cOJin1Inunist regime; Sitanislav is still actiive. Bartek performed a very meritorious service, pa-r ticular,l'Y by foundilllg the peri10dical "Slovenska rec" (Slovak Langua,ge), and by his uncOJinpramising stand in the so-called "ma1ticne" (Slovak [nstitu1:e) strwggles for the purity of the S1ov,a k language and its separate development since Vhe d isaippearance of the Old Slovanic laruguaige. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "President Benes was always of the opinion, and in his latest statemen!ts rulways stressed, tihait OUT pact of •a lliance with Soviet Russia and our friendshiJp with other Slav na,.. tions must not encroach on our friendly and cordial re1ations with other democratic states. This is the natural desire, shared by an enormous majority of our people, and nothing prevents us from keeping the confidence of the democratic states and strengthening and deepening our friendship with our great western Allies. Moscow, too, wa.Illts to fol4ow this line of poliicy. rt will, however, be necessary for certain prejudices of the West with regard to· the Soviet Union, which are still existing, to be swept away." - Premier Fierlinger of Czecho-Slovakia, O'WI Bulletin, June 1, 1945. � SLOVAKIA 2."i CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES IN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. A reprint from SLAVIC AND E1AST EUROPEAN STUDIES Vol. IV, Part 3-4, Published by the University of Montreal, Department of Slavic Studies. A bibliographic review of Slovak linguistics and philology show that, in the la-st twenty years, philology in Slovakia has experienced an all round development and progress and is developing, both quantitatively and qualitatitvely, comparatively undisturbed, even since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet cultural and political sphere of influence. A complete picture of the contemporary state of Slovak phildlogy would require, of course, thorough research not only into the development of philology in Slovakia, which is exposed to Russian and Czech cultural influences, but also into that of the countries of the free world, where a comparatively large number of cultural and scientific workers use the Slovak language. For both ringuist and philologist such a research project would be interesting not only because in scores of Slovak periodicals and books, which are published in the free world, there are traces of the inrfluence of tihe Romance and the Anglo-Saxon languages, particularly in the syntax, but a research would be of interest also because in the free world, there were published several philological studies in which two tendencies are quite evident. The first tendency rejeets orthographic changes in the Slovak language; the second, representing the majority of cultural workers, at the recommendation of the leading Slovak philologist, Professor Henry Bartek, accepted in principle the orfuographic changes which were instituted by the philologists in Slovakia from the time of the Czecho-Russian occupation. However, the framework of this study is limited to research into the Soviet orbit and, therefore, we forego at this time, a research into the development of Slovak philology in the countries of the free world, even though some works of H. Bartek, Philip Hrobak, Joseph Konus, and others, �26 SLOVAKIA warrant the attention of a wider circle of Slavists. The following outline of the contemporary state of Slovak philology concerns itself only with the development in Slovakia. Sovietophil Tendencies and Their Extent As with literature and science, in general, philology, too, has been exposed, since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet sphere of influence, to political pressure by the Communist Party and is, therefore, gradually developing with considerable dependence on Soviet philology. This occurs particularly through the influence of some cultural workers who were elevated by the present regime to positions of importance in Slovak cultural life because of :their partisan adherence rather than their past scientific performances or professional qualifications. These "cultural commissioner s" from the very beginning tried to adapt to Slovak philology "the theoretical directives which were given Marxist philology by J. V. Stalin in his genial works Marxism and Problems of Linguistics and Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S. S. R.(1). However, a considerable number of true philologists ad!hered, in the first place, to scientific principles. The barefaced efforts to align Slovak philology with "the Marxist directives" and subjugate it to the contemvorary political regime come to light particularly in the introduction to the new Rules of Slovak Orthography (Pravidla. slovenskeho pravopisu), published in 1953. The editor-in-Chief, Dr. Stefan Peciar, and the majority of the members of the commission which prepared fue Rules, received their education and matured scientifically either in the bourgeois Czedho-Slovak Republic or between 19391945 in the Slovak Republic, but in the introduction to their work, which otherwise "in substance did not change the present orthography and its basic principle," according to their own admission, they deemed it necessary to pay homage to Stalin and to attack fue philologists who prepared the Rules of orthography in 1940. It would certainly be quite superfluous to try to prove bhat Marxism belongs to the sphere of political and social sciences, and that serious scholars know as yet neither "the �SLOVAKIA 27 Marxist philology ," nor the Marxist scientific method or principle in linguistic s and philology , but only the political and unscientif ic interferen ce by the regimes which subscribe to the Marx-Eng els' or Lenin's political and economic theories. In the same manner, philology does not recognize fascist principles in philology and linguistic s, which principles some of the contempo rary linguists in Slovakia are attemptin g to discover in the works of their predecessors or contempo raries living in the countries of the free world. Needless to say thaJt they are attemptin g to discover such "fascist" principles not on the basis of scholarly researoh, but in an effort to perform a service for the present political regime. There are, therefore , no serious suppositi ons in Slovakia that some "Marxist point of view" even if such a thing existed, could already have asserted itself in Slovak philology. The review of names of the scholarly active philologists shows that they are the ones with whom we have been familiar, particula rly during the period of the Slovak Republic. The bibliogra phy of philology in Slovakia of the years 1939-47 (2) serves as evidence that Dr. Peciar, as well as Dr. Pauliny, Jona, Horecky, Ruzicka, and others, grew intellectu ally and created mainly during the existence of the Slovak Republic; and, that while some of them could have been reproach ed during the Second World War for trying to bring into Slovak philology the Czech philological theories (see the polemic Peciar-U hlar in the pereoldical "Slovensk a rec" (Slovak Languag e), there was no ndticeabl e attempt at transferr ing the Russian philologic al theories. The generatio n educated under the present regime is sUll too young to make any serious contribut ion to scholarsh ip or science, as the attainme nt of a universit y degree does not signify scientific qualificat ion, but rather the confirma tion of the ability to undertak e scientific or scholarly work. Therefore , we find predomin ating even in the Bibliography of Slovak Philology for the Years 1948-1952 , compiled by Dr. Ladislav Dvonc, the names which became known during the previous period. Dvonc's bibliogra phy is a sequel to Elana.r's bibliogra phy, and in its 1500 entries �28 SLOVAKIA it deals with: 1. all linguistic contributions published in Slovakia; 2. contributions by Slovak philologists and linguists in non-Slovak periodicals; and 3. contributions of non-Slovak au1Jhors on Slovak language or their pholological works published in Slovakia. Results of a favorable development of Slovak philology are visible in Dvonc's bibliography not only in the number of entries (1500 within four years), but also in the number of fields covered. Slovak philology is no more restricted to reseavch into and perfection of the Slovak language alone. There is also a comparatively large number of works, studies, and articles on general linguistics, Indo-European languages, general Slavonic philology and linguistics, on artificial languages and on the organization of scholarly work in the field of philology and linguistics. Soviet pressure or impact of Soviet philology appears particularly in the group "General philology" which contains 79 entries, mostly translations from Russian or works of Slovak lesser linguists on Soviet and Marxist philology and Stalin's theories. Only three of the known Slovak philologists (Peciar, Horecky and Jona) take part in the Soviet attempt to impose "Marxist and Stalinist linguistic theories" upon Slovak philology. The most aggressive propagator of "Marxist philology," Alexander Isacenko, was broug,ht up in Slovakia as a son of White Russian emigres. He pays his debts now to Slovakia, which saved him and even gave him a university chair during the war, by serving Soviet aims as their most docile and obedient tool. (See his "Geniail contributions to t'he theory of Marx-Leninism" - For a Marxist Philology" - "An important discussion on philology in the Soviet Union," etc.). As for the Slovanic philology, it was dealt with in Slovakia, during the four years in question, in 229 entries. Slovak, and in translations foreign and other Slav scholars (Lehr-Splawinski, E. Knisza, Weingart, Dvozdec, Vinogradov, Pankevyc, Barchudarov) covered the field of Old Church Slovanic, Russian, Polish, Czech, and other Slovanic languages. Among Slovak philologists, the mos:t prolific and scholarly, according to the western standards, �SLOVAKIA 29 appears to be prof. Jan Stanislav (Polish and SouthernSlav philology) . Scholarly research into the Slovak language is, of course, still the principal field of interest. The number of works, studies and articles, referring to the Slovak language, its history and development, is close to 700, many of them written by highly qualified philologists and linguists either of Slovak or foreign origin (J. Stanislav, L. Novak, E. Pauliny, V. Uhlar, A. Janosik, S. Peciar, J. Horecky, V. Blanar, E. Jona, Kniesza, Vazny, Kuraly, Stieber, etc.). They cover the history of literary languages in Slovakia, historical grammar and historical dialectology, etymology, phonology, orthography, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Attack on Purism and Advocation of Slovanic Orientation The fact that Marxist methods are not considered seriously, even by the linguists who advocate them, is shown in the review of philological works published several years ago, as well as by the predominant condemnation of only those philologists who prepared the Rules of Slovak Orthography, in 1940. The older linguists, from Anthony Bernolak to Samuel Czambel, are highly esteemed; in fact, in certain instances, they are esteemed more highly than they were by the now proscribed philologists and literary historians of the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic (3). For example, in the introduction to the new Rules, we read the following: "A significant role in the perfection of the Slovak language was played by our national awakeners. They discovered the internal criteria of tJhe Slovak language, formulated then and laid strong foundations for our literary language and our lingual culture. Anton Bernolak took the first steps towards the stabilization of the Slovak literary language, its ovthography, morphology, and vocabulary. For stabilizing the Slovak literary language in its present form, and particularly its morphology and orthography, Martin Hattala and Samo Czambel and others are mainly responsible." ( 4). Among the classicists of Slovak literature, who "enriched, developed, and strengthened" the Slovak language, the "Marxist" commission also includes Jan Holly who, �30 SLOVAKIA with Berndlak and Hatta-la, was also a Catholic priest and who (together with the above-ment ioned) is credited with what even today is often reproachfu lly called "Slovak linguistic separatism " in English and French books, particuiarly if such books were inspired by Czech politicians or scholars. The attack on the philologists who compiled the Rules of 1940 is obviously p<Yliticaily motivaJted. The servants of the present communist regime in Slovakia condemn the compiler•s of the previous Rules, first, because they were supposedly "the servants of Eudak (Populist) separatism and went out of their way to mee't the demands of the treacherou s politicians, " and only in the second place, because "they strived to remove literary Sfovak as far as possible from Czech and to isolate it also from other Slovanic languages. " In other words, they were "puristicall y oriented" and marked the Rules with "a puristical tendency." However, the changes which have been made in Slovak orthograph y, and the review of the ph!ilological studies of the past few years, do not testify to the fact that the present "Marxist" philologists have very substantial ly removed themselves from "the purists" or that they have approached closer to Czech or other Slovanic languages, with the exception of the Russian language. The entire evolutionary line of Slovak philology - the founders of which were the national awakeners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who had to defend the Slovak language against Hungarian assimilator y tendencies and the nationalistica lly oriented linguists and philologists of the last decades of this century, for whom it was necessary to defend the Slovak language against no less dangerous Czech tendencies - has not yet been too remarkably dented by contempor ary philologists in Slovakia. The thesis that the Slovak language tended to develop as a separate Slovanic language after the disappeara nce of the Old Slovanic language - and that the attempts to make it one of the dialects of the Czech language must only be considered as unscientific and political tendencies and aspirations - is practically proved by the scholarly works of the contempor ary �SLOVAKIA 31 philologists with alil the weight and consistency of methods which cannot be la:beled unscientific. In harmony with the general cultural growth of the Slovak nation, Slovak philology develops in scope and depth. During 1939-1945 alone over a thousand works, treatises, articles, and studies in the field of philology were published. The linguists and philologists did not concern themselves merely with research into and the stabilization of the Slovak language, but also with the wider problems of linguistics and ph'ilology, Slovanic and non-Slovanic IndoEuropean languages, and with tihe general philology (5) . During the war, there already was evident a promising development which was made in the formaition of Slovak scientific and technical terminology, particularly in the scientific disciplines and in the technical-economic sphere of Slovak life(6). The contemporary philologists continue diligently in this "purism," and Slovak scientific and technical terminology has, in the past few years, been considerably enriched by the newly-coined or adapted terms of other Slovanic languages, particularly Russian. Objectivity warrants the admission that the works of Slovak philologists are comparatively extensive; that the number of published books, studies and treatises in periodicals is considerable; and that the fields of scientific research are numerous. In the interest of truth, however, it is also necessary to add that this growth of scholarly works has no relation to, and is not to be credited to the contemporary political regime. Regardless of what regime might exist today in Slovakia, there would inevitably be more achievement in science, culture and arts than ever before. The explanation is to be found in the general development of Slovakia in the last forty years and particularly in the fact that, in the last years of the so-called bourgeois Czecho-Slovak Republic and especially during the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic, a large number of young S'lovaks studied in universities at home and abroad, not only the traditional disciplines - theology, law, and medicine - but the entire field of science. The inclusion of Slovakia i.nlto the Soviet orbit befell them in the years of their scientific productivity or in their years of �32 SLOVAKIA university studies. If, today, in Slovakia, more is produced and published in philology or in other scientific fields, it is because the Slovak nation reached that stage of development at which there are found entire cadres of scientific and culutral workers. These cadres are so large that, even after the departure of thousands into exile, it is possible today to publish in Slovakia more books than ever before in all fields of science. The communist regime, in certain respects, by the limitation of freedom alone, holds back scientific work, and supports development only of those fields in which the political aims of the Communist Party can be pursued. Philology is, for the communist regime, a neutral rather than a privileged field. As far as the linguistic side of the Slovak language is concerned, in :the Rules as in other works, there appears a trend towards a more consistent use of the principles of phonetic orthogr&phy and towards the simplification of writing Slovak and foreign expressions. In philological production alone there are represented dialectology, lexicology, comparative philology, morphology, phonology, orthoepy, phonetics, etc. Several works deal with questions of the Cyrilo--Methodian period, the development of philology in other Slovanic nations (Russia, Bulgaria) and the history of the Slovak language. A scholarly level has been attained, first of all, by the works of older linguists and philologists, but the possession of the qualifications and preparation for the professional philological work is evident in a large number of younger intellectuals, particularly in their criticism, polemics and commentaries on the new editions of older literary or philological works (for instance, in the introductions to the new editions of the works of Bernolak, Holly, Stur, etc.). End of the Controversy Regarding Literary Slovak and the Origin of the Slovak Language From the published works of philologists and literary historians it is also obvious t'hat the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, Czechoslovak) in Slovak literature, which theses �SLOVAKIA were intended to support the political theses of a single Czechoslovak nation, have been definitely buried. In this respect, even some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scientific conclusions which have long been defended by Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy, on the Czech side is the work of Professor A. Dostal (7), and on the Slovak side, Pauliny's "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948 (8) , and Mraz's "Dejiny slovenskej literatiiry" - History of Slovak Literature, Bra'tislava, 1948(9) , as well as the papers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, particularly, the paper of Professor E. Pauliny on "Bilingualism in the History of the Slovak Literary Language," de-serves special at'tention. Papliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in S'lovakfa in the 15th and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who did not apply "Marxist criteria" in philology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not stand compe'tition with the Slovak vernacular when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness: though the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the 19th century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majorit y a whole century before that time. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is therefore, even according to Pauliny, that of bilingualism (p. 43). A century-long controversy, as to whether Slovak is but a dialect of the Czech language, or a dis'tinct Slovanic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both the Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia. By a careful analysis of the fundamenital roots of both languages, Czech and Slovak, as well as through a comparative study of their later developments, contemporary scholars trained in philology have revealed the true basis of the Slovak language and have clas- �34 SLOVAKIA sified it properly as one of distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearance of the Old Slovanic language. The controversy was occasioned by two facts. On the one hand, some literary historians made no distinction between the language spoken by the Slovaks as their native tongue and 'their literary medium. The latter for some time wa:s (besides Latin) the old Czech liturgical language. On the other hand, most of the philo'logists and literary historians, predominantly of Czech origin, in formulating purely scientific views as to the proper relationship between the Czech and Slovak languages, were influenced by political aspira!tions. Recent studies based on scientific principles of philology, phonology, etymology lexicography, and grammar now show that the original Slovak terminology, wJth rare exceptions, goes back to the original roots of a native Slovak language essentially distinct from every other Slovanic tongue. The confusion created by the failure to draw a proper distinction between the native language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language was, however, only partly responsible for the erroneous view that Slovak was merely a dialect of the Czech language or that there was something like a "Czechoslovak language" (10). Theories on the existence of a "Czechoslovak language" were creat ed even after one hundred years of the existence of the Slovak literary language which was accepted by both Slovak Catholics and Lutherans in 1844, and after two hundred years' use by the Catholics of their own vernacular as the literary medium around the University of Trnava, founded in 1635. Consequently, the main reason for the confusion was of a political nature, even if presented in "scientific" form. Professor F. Travnicek, for instance, used geography as his main argument for his theory of the "Czechoslovak language." The fact that the Czechs and Slovaks inhabited the present area from the sixth century was used by him as an argumen1t that they had a common ,l anguage. In his "ffistoricka mluvnice ceskoslovenska" (Historic Czechoslovak Grammar) he stated: "The ancient Czechoslovak language lasted from the time of its inde- �SLOVAKIA 35 pendent establishment as a full-fledged language, from the siJd:h to the end of the tenth century, and is similar to the prehistoric tongue. The chief condition of this independent development was that our ancestors were separated geographically from the rest of the Slavs" (11). Geographical factors can hardly take precedence over linguistic data, and even if we accept this theory, another factor, the separation of Czechs and Siovaks from the ninth century, would be in favor of an independent development of the Slovak spoken tongue. Slovak philologists and linguists Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Sttanislav, Novak, etc. (12) rejected, therefore the Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic form,s of the Slovak tongue and, by linguistic methods of phonology as we11 as by a comparative study, they arrived at new conclusions as to the origin and development of the S'lovak language. These conclusions were ultimately accepted by contemporary Czech as well as other Slovanic philologists and linguists (13). As a result of this development the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a refation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into the Slovak, and vice versa, as the Polish or Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long ~ime ago, and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and phi'lologists to recognize the irrefutable. REFERENCES (1) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, Brat islava, Slov,e nska akadeania vied, 1953, p. 7. (2) IDr. Vincent Blanar: Bibliografia jazykovedy na Slovensku v rokoch 1939-1947, Bratislava, Slovensika a1~ademia vied a umeni, 195'0, p. 210. This work ,contaiins 11,17 titles, Olf which aipprox.ilmatel,y 1000 were pulblished dudrug the existen-ce Olf the Slovak R~bl!i.'c . .Altogether Blanar presents an almost complete picture of Ling,ud,stic and philological w<ll'ks, pwblished in boo!k form or in periodicals, in the fiields olf ,g eneral philiodog,y, comparative linguistiics Olf lndoEuirQPean languages, Sl'O'Vanic philology and! the stu~ Olf the Slova!k lairugua,ge. See al!so Dr. L. Dvonc:1Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy za roky 1948-1952, Matica Slovenska, 1957. �36 SLOVAKIA (3) See, for examI?:le, the eval,uartion o.f U. Stur as a philo1o,gist in the book "l!udovit Stur, Slovencina" nasa," which was prepared and annotated by Dr. J. Ambms and has been evaliwa1ted lirug,uirstdlcailily by Dr. V. Blanar. According to Blanar, Stur kept pa,ce with the European philologic:d schools o.f that time and its foremosrt ip·h enomena, a,n d his studies at Hal!le predestined him to beco,me, in Slovanic and Slovaik cir,cwmstances, one of the frrst representatives of the newest methods on theories in phi'lology. (4) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, p. 6. Anton Bemo'1ak 01762--1813) codified the Slovak literary lang,ua,ge as used by the Slovak Catholics from tJhe time of the co-uniter-Reformation and esipeoi,a,1ly since .16315, the year Olf the fo.u,ndatJion of the second university in Slovakia. at Trnaiva. Bernolak gaive a solid fowndati-on to the Slovak literary .l!anguag,e, based on the Western Sllovaik dialecrt, in hiis works: Disserta,t io philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum : Linguae slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae usitatae compendiosa simul at facilis o,rthographia" (Bra1tislava, 1'7'3171); "Grammatica slavica" (1790), and in his huge pentalingual dictionary, pu1blished after his deatih, in 1825. Marbin Hattala (1821-1903'), who later became a professor at the University of Praigue, codid'ied the reform in'1:rod1uced by U. Stur, which was a,o cepted in, 1844 by both Slovak Oatholiics and Protestants. His "Kratka mluvnica slovenska" CShor.t Slovak Gr•aimlillar), p,wblished in 1852, gaive a scientific bas-is and for:m to Stur's reform. Saimuel Czaimbel (1856-1 909), one o.f the greatest Slovak philologists, enniiched Sl,o vak phi,lol1ogy by seveml scholarly wo·r'ks regardiillg dialectology, monphology, and lexicol-o,gy. His main woriks are "Slovensky pravopis" (Slovak Orithogra-phy, 1890) and "Rukovat' spisovnej reci slovenskej " QManual of the Slovalk Liternry Larug-uage, 1-902). For detai:ls concernirug Bernolak, Haittaila, and Czaimbel, see Prof. E. Pauliny: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny." (5) Colillipare V. Blanar: Biblografia. (6) Pioneer and valuable worik iin, this d'i rection was done partLcularliy by Professor Dr. Jul iius Led enyi-La1d ziansky in the termino:lo.gy o.f medical science. (7) Prof. Dr. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, Prague, Statni pedagogicke naildiadatelstvi, 1:954. (8) (Prof. Dr. Eugen Pa,Ulliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bratisl-aiva, S1ovenska akadem!iia, vied a umeni, 19418. In the introduction to his book, Pa-wliny understands the history o.f the 1-angu,age as the history Olf the oriigin, disaippear ance and cha,n,ges Olf its i,ndi'Vidua1l styles. Ho:wever, in the book i ts-elf, he d'ivide:d the his-tor-y of the Slovak 1iitera['y laruguage accord!i,u,g to the languages which wer e used ,by the Slov,aiks as literary la~ua,ges in addition to the sipoken vern,a,culiar from the time of the Gr eater Moravia•. On page 5, he writes: "Al,thouglh, in this case, the p er,iod of the actual Sll,ovaik litera['y laillguaige ca,n. begin only with Bernolak, or with t he p eriod shortly befor e Bemolak, nevertheless it is not poss,iJble to begin the history of t he literary languages of the Slovaks either with Bernolak or Stur, but it is ,n,ecessa,r,y t,o go deep into 1Jhe pa st, aH the way to the ver y begin nings o.f the histor iical p er iod o.f our na-ti-on in the Gr eater Moravian epoch, na,y, in ceritain matters, it is ,necessary to go even 1 1 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 37 further, into the pre-histork period, when our ancestors were not yet baptized and did not particiiPate im, the European cul<ture whiich was introduced to us by Chrisit-iani:ty." (9) Prof. A. Mraz: Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Braitisfava, Slovenska akademia vied a UJ!l1eni, 1948. (lJl) F . Travnicek: Historicka mluvnice ceskoslovenska, Brno, 1935, p. 21-23. (10) This thesis wa,s propa•g ated by Dr. Ed'Uard Benes throurg h his pUJblication Detruisez I' Autriche, Paris, 11916, and, with the helip of Czech philologists, it penetrated also inito many western university oiTcles and was reoeated by the Slavists on this continent a·s well. (13) Besides aiuthors of Slovak origin, (Hrobak, Konus, Potocek, and others), the correct attitude towards the Slovak lang;uage, in the Englislh lan!guage works, was taken particUilarly by Professor Alfred Senn in the syunrposi,um A Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L. I. Strakhovsky, Camlbridlge, Massachu,s etts, Harvard UnLversity Press, 1949. (12) Profiessor Bartek pub1'ished, boith in Slovakia and in exiile, a numlber of prul. 0Iogica1! wo,r ks, S'Ome Off w,h ich were piulblished i,n, French and Eng-lish. Elana.r"s "Bibliografia" cites thirteen titles of his works. 'Ilhe best known philologists, besides B'artek, are S-tanislav and Novak. StaniS'lav is known parti<cUilarliy for his research i,n,to the OyriJoJMethodian period and for his works in toponyimy. Novak was siJenced by the cOJin1Inunist regime; Sitanislav is still actiive. Bartek performed a very meritorious service, pa-r ticular,l'Y by foundilllg the peri10dical "Slovenska rec" (Slovak Langua,ge), and by his uncOJinpramising stand in the so-called "ma1ticne" (Slovak [nstitu1:e) strwggles for the purity of the S1ov,a k language and its separate development since Vhe d isaippearance of the Old Slovanic laruguaige. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "President Benes was always of the opinion, and in his latest statemen!ts rulways stressed, tihait OUT pact of •a lliance with Soviet Russia and our friendshiJp with other Slav na,.. tions must not encroach on our friendly and cordial re1ations with other democratic states. This is the natural desire, shared by an enormous majority of our people, and nothing prevents us from keeping the confidence of the democratic states and strengthening and deepening our friendship with our great western Allies. Moscow, too, wa.Illts to fol4ow this line of poliicy. rt will, however, be necessary for certain prejudices of the West with regard to· the Soviet Union, which are still existing, to be swept away." - Premier Fierlinger of Czecho-Slovakia, O'WI Bulletin, June 1, 1945. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 2."i CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES IN SLOVAK PHILOLOGY Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. A reprint from SLAVIC AND E1AST EUROPEAN STUDIES Vol. IV, Part 3-4, Published by the University of Montreal, Department of Slavic Studies. A bibliographic review of Slovak linguistics and philology show that, in the la-st twenty years, philology in Slovakia has experienced an all round development and progress and is developing, both quantitatively and qualitatitvely, comparatively undisturbed, even since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet cultural and political sphere of influence. A complete picture of the contemporary state of Slovak phildlogy would require, of course, thorough research not only into the development of philology in Slovakia, which is exposed to Russian and Czech cultural influences, but also into that of the countries of the free world, where a comparatively large number of cultural and scientific workers use the Slovak language. For both ringuist and philologist such a research project would be interesting not only because in scores of Slovak periodicals and books, which are published in the free world, there are traces of the inrfluence of tihe Romance and the Anglo-Saxon languages, particularly in the syntax, but a research would be of interest also because in the free world, there were published several philological studies in which two tendencies are quite evident. The first tendency rejeets orthographic changes in the Slovak language; the second, representing the majority of cultural workers, at the recommendation of the leading Slovak philologist, Professor Henry Bartek, accepted in principle the orfuographic changes which were instituted by the philologists in Slovakia from the time of the Czecho-Russian occupation. However, the framework of this study is limited to research into the Soviet orbit and, therefore, we forego at this time, a research into the development of Slovak philology in the countries of the free world, even though some works of H. Bartek, Philip Hrobak, Joseph Konus, and others, 26 SLOVAKIA warrant the attention of a wider circle of Slavists. The following outline of the contemporary state of Slovak philology concerns itself only with the development in Slovakia. Sovietophil Tendencies and Their Extent As with literature and science, in general, philology, too, has been exposed, since the inclusion of Slovakia into the Soviet sphere of influence, to political pressure by the Communist Party and is, therefore, gradually developing with considerable dependence on Soviet philology. This occurs particularly through the influence of some cultural workers who were elevated by the present regime to positions of importance in Slovak cultural life because of :their partisan adherence rather than their past scientific performances or professional qualifications. These "cultural commissioner s" from the very beginning tried to adapt to Slovak philology "the theoretical directives which were given Marxist philology by J. V. Stalin in his genial works Marxism and Problems of Linguistics and Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S. S. R.(1). However, a considerable number of true philologists ad!hered, in the first place, to scientific principles. The barefaced efforts to align Slovak philology with "the Marxist directives" and subjugate it to the contemvorary political regime come to light particularly in the introduction to the new Rules of Slovak Orthography (Pravidla. slovenskeho pravopisu), published in 1953. The editor-in-Chief, Dr. Stefan Peciar, and the majority of the members of the commission which prepared fue Rules, received their education and matured scientifically either in the bourgeois Czedho-Slovak Republic or between 19391945 in the Slovak Republic, but in the introduction to their work, which otherwise "in substance did not change the present orthography and its basic principle," according to their own admission, they deemed it necessary to pay homage to Stalin and to attack fue philologists who prepared the Rules of orthography in 1940. It would certainly be quite superfluous to try to prove bhat Marxism belongs to the sphere of political and social sciences, and that serious scholars know as yet neither "the SLOVAKIA 27 Marxist philology ," nor the Marxist scientific method or principle in linguistic s and philology , but only the political and unscientif ic interferen ce by the regimes which subscribe to the Marx-Eng els' or Lenin's political and economic theories. In the same manner, philology does not recognize fascist principles in philology and linguistic s, which principles some of the contempo rary linguists in Slovakia are attemptin g to discover in the works of their predecessors or contempo raries living in the countries of the free world. Needless to say thaJt they are attemptin g to discover such "fascist" principles not on the basis of scholarly researoh, but in an effort to perform a service for the present political regime. There are, therefore , no serious suppositi ons in Slovakia that some "Marxist point of view" even if such a thing existed, could already have asserted itself in Slovak philology. The review of names of the scholarly active philologists shows that they are the ones with whom we have been familiar, particula rly during the period of the Slovak Republic. The bibliogra phy of philology in Slovakia of the years 1939-47 (2) serves as evidence that Dr. Peciar, as well as Dr. Pauliny, Jona, Horecky, Ruzicka, and others, grew intellectu ally and created mainly during the existence of the Slovak Republic; and, that while some of them could have been reproach ed during the Second World War for trying to bring into Slovak philology the Czech philological theories (see the polemic Peciar-U hlar in the pereoldical "Slovensk a rec" (Slovak Languag e), there was no ndticeabl e attempt at transferr ing the Russian philologic al theories. The generatio n educated under the present regime is sUll too young to make any serious contribut ion to scholarsh ip or science, as the attainme nt of a universit y degree does not signify scientific qualificat ion, but rather the confirma tion of the ability to undertak e scientific or scholarly work. Therefore , we find predomin ating even in the Bibliography of Slovak Philology for the Years 1948-1952 , compiled by Dr. Ladislav Dvonc, the names which became known during the previous period. Dvonc's bibliogra phy is a sequel to Elana.r's bibliogra phy, and in its 1500 entries 28 SLOVAKIA it deals with: 1. all linguistic contributions published in Slovakia; 2. contributions by Slovak philologists and linguists in non-Slovak periodicals; and 3. contributions of non-Slovak au1Jhors on Slovak language or their pholological works published in Slovakia. Results of a favorable development of Slovak philology are visible in Dvonc's bibliography not only in the number of entries (1500 within four years), but also in the number of fields covered. Slovak philology is no more restricted to reseavch into and perfection of the Slovak language alone. There is also a comparatively large number of works, studies, and articles on general linguistics, Indo-European languages, general Slavonic philology and linguistics, on artificial languages and on the organization of scholarly work in the field of philology and linguistics. Soviet pressure or impact of Soviet philology appears particularly in the group "General philology" which contains 79 entries, mostly translations from Russian or works of Slovak lesser linguists on Soviet and Marxist philology and Stalin's theories. Only three of the known Slovak philologists (Peciar, Horecky and Jona) take part in the Soviet attempt to impose "Marxist and Stalinist linguistic theories" upon Slovak philology. The most aggressive propagator of "Marxist philology," Alexander Isacenko, was broug,ht up in Slovakia as a son of White Russian emigres. He pays his debts now to Slovakia, which saved him and even gave him a university chair during the war, by serving Soviet aims as their most docile and obedient tool. (See his "Geniail contributions to t'he theory of Marx-Leninism" - For a Marxist Philology" - "An important discussion on philology in the Soviet Union," etc.). As for the Slovanic philology, it was dealt with in Slovakia, during the four years in question, in 229 entries. Slovak, and in translations foreign and other Slav scholars (Lehr-Splawinski, E. Knisza, Weingart, Dvozdec, Vinogradov, Pankevyc, Barchudarov) covered the field of Old Church Slovanic, Russian, Polish, Czech, and other Slovanic languages. Among Slovak philologists, the mos:t prolific and scholarly, according to the western standards, SLOVAKIA 29 appears to be prof. Jan Stanislav (Polish and SouthernSlav philology) . Scholarly research into the Slovak language is, of course, still the principal field of interest. The number of works, studies and articles, referring to the Slovak language, its history and development, is close to 700, many of them written by highly qualified philologists and linguists either of Slovak or foreign origin (J. Stanislav, L. Novak, E. Pauliny, V. Uhlar, A. Janosik, S. Peciar, J. Horecky, V. Blanar, E. Jona, Kniesza, Vazny, Kuraly, Stieber, etc.). They cover the history of literary languages in Slovakia, historical grammar and historical dialectology, etymology, phonology, orthography, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Attack on Purism and Advocation of Slovanic Orientation The fact that Marxist methods are not considered seriously, even by the linguists who advocate them, is shown in the review of philological works published several years ago, as well as by the predominant condemnation of only those philologists who prepared the Rules of Slovak Orthography, in 1940. The older linguists, from Anthony Bernolak to Samuel Czambel, are highly esteemed; in fact, in certain instances, they are esteemed more highly than they were by the now proscribed philologists and literary historians of the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic (3). For example, in the introduction to the new Rules, we read the following: "A significant role in the perfection of the Slovak language was played by our national awakeners. They discovered the internal criteria of tJhe Slovak language, formulated then and laid strong foundations for our literary language and our lingual culture. Anton Bernolak took the first steps towards the stabilization of the Slovak literary language, its ovthography, morphology, and vocabulary. For stabilizing the Slovak literary language in its present form, and particularly its morphology and orthography, Martin Hattala and Samo Czambel and others are mainly responsible." ( 4). Among the classicists of Slovak literature, who "enriched, developed, and strengthened" the Slovak language, the "Marxist" commission also includes Jan Holly who, 30 SLOVAKIA with Berndlak and Hatta-la, was also a Catholic priest and who (together with the above-ment ioned) is credited with what even today is often reproachfu lly called "Slovak linguistic separatism " in English and French books, particuiarly if such books were inspired by Czech politicians or scholars. The attack on the philologists who compiled the Rules of 1940 is obviously p<Yliticaily motivaJted. The servants of the present communist regime in Slovakia condemn the compiler•s of the previous Rules, first, because they were supposedly "the servants of Eudak (Populist) separatism and went out of their way to mee't the demands of the treacherou s politicians, " and only in the second place, because "they strived to remove literary Sfovak as far as possible from Czech and to isolate it also from other Slovanic languages. " In other words, they were "puristicall y oriented" and marked the Rules with "a puristical tendency." However, the changes which have been made in Slovak orthograph y, and the review of the ph!ilological studies of the past few years, do not testify to the fact that the present "Marxist" philologists have very substantial ly removed themselves from "the purists" or that they have approached closer to Czech or other Slovanic languages, with the exception of the Russian language. The entire evolutionary line of Slovak philology - the founders of which were the national awakeners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who had to defend the Slovak language against Hungarian assimilator y tendencies and the nationalistica lly oriented linguists and philologists of the last decades of this century, for whom it was necessary to defend the Slovak language against no less dangerous Czech tendencies - has not yet been too remarkably dented by contempor ary philologists in Slovakia. The thesis that the Slovak language tended to develop as a separate Slovanic language after the disappeara nce of the Old Slovanic language - and that the attempts to make it one of the dialects of the Czech language must only be considered as unscientific and political tendencies and aspirations - is practically proved by the scholarly works of the contempor ary SLOVAKIA 31 philologists with alil the weight and consistency of methods which cannot be la:beled unscientific. In harmony with the general cultural growth of the Slovak nation, Slovak philology develops in scope and depth. During 1939-1945 alone over a thousand works, treatises, articles, and studies in the field of philology were published. The linguists and philologists did not concern themselves merely with research into and the stabilization of the Slovak language, but also with the wider problems of linguistics and ph'ilology, Slovanic and non-Slovanic IndoEuropean languages, and with tihe general philology (5) . During the war, there already was evident a promising development which was made in the formaition of Slovak scientific and technical terminology, particularly in the scientific disciplines and in the technical-economic sphere of Slovak life(6). The contemporary philologists continue diligently in this "purism," and Slovak scientific and technical terminology has, in the past few years, been considerably enriched by the newly-coined or adapted terms of other Slovanic languages, particularly Russian. Objectivity warrants the admission that the works of Slovak philologists are comparatively extensive; that the number of published books, studies and treatises in periodicals is considerable; and that the fields of scientific research are numerous. In the interest of truth, however, it is also necessary to add that this growth of scholarly works has no relation to, and is not to be credited to the contemporary political regime. Regardless of what regime might exist today in Slovakia, there would inevitably be more achievement in science, culture and arts than ever before. The explanation is to be found in the general development of Slovakia in the last forty years and particularly in the fact that, in the last years of the so-called bourgeois Czecho-Slovak Republic and especially during the period of the existence of the Slovak Republic, a large number of young S'lovaks studied in universities at home and abroad, not only the traditional disciplines - theology, law, and medicine - but the entire field of science. The inclusion of Slovakia i.nlto the Soviet orbit befell them in the years of their scientific productivity or in their years of 32 SLOVAKIA university studies. If, today, in Slovakia, more is produced and published in philology or in other scientific fields, it is because the Slovak nation reached that stage of development at which there are found entire cadres of scientific and culutral workers. These cadres are so large that, even after the departure of thousands into exile, it is possible today to publish in Slovakia more books than ever before in all fields of science. The communist regime, in certain respects, by the limitation of freedom alone, holds back scientific work, and supports development only of those fields in which the political aims of the Communist Party can be pursued. Philology is, for the communist regime, a neutral rather than a privileged field. As far as the linguistic side of the Slovak language is concerned, in :the Rules as in other works, there appears a trend towards a more consistent use of the principles of phonetic orthogr&phy and towards the simplification of writing Slovak and foreign expressions. In philological production alone there are represented dialectology, lexicology, comparative philology, morphology, phonology, orthoepy, phonetics, etc. Several works deal with questions of the Cyrilo--Methodian period, the development of philology in other Slovanic nations (Russia, Bulgaria) and the history of the Slovak language. A scholarly level has been attained, first of all, by the works of older linguists and philologists, but the possession of the qualifications and preparation for the professional philological work is evident in a large number of younger intellectuals, particularly in their criticism, polemics and commentaries on the new editions of older literary or philological works (for instance, in the introductions to the new editions of the works of Bernolak, Holly, Stur, etc.). End of the Controversy Regarding Literary Slovak and the Origin of the Slovak Language From the published works of philologists and literary historians it is also obvious t'hat the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, Czechoslovak) in Slovak literature, which theses SLOVAKIA were intended to support the political theses of a single Czechoslovak nation, have been definitely buried. In this respect, even some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scientific conclusions which have long been defended by Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy, on the Czech side is the work of Professor A. Dostal (7), and on the Slovak side, Pauliny's "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948 (8) , and Mraz's "Dejiny slovenskej literatiiry" - History of Slovak Literature, Bra'tislava, 1948(9) , as well as the papers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, particularly, the paper of Professor E. Pauliny on "Bilingualism in the History of the Slovak Literary Language," de-serves special at'tention. Papliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in S'lovakfa in the 15th and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who did not apply "Marxist criteria" in philology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not stand compe'tition with the Slovak vernacular when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness: though the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the 19th century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majorit y a whole century before that time. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is therefore, even according to Pauliny, that of bilingualism (p. 43). A century-long controversy, as to whether Slovak is but a dialect of the Czech language, or a dis'tinct Slovanic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both the Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia. By a careful analysis of the fundamenital roots of both languages, Czech and Slovak, as well as through a comparative study of their later developments, contemporary scholars trained in philology have revealed the true basis of the Slovak language and have clas- 34 SLOVAKIA sified it properly as one of distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearance of the Old Slovanic language. The controversy was occasioned by two facts. On the one hand, some literary historians made no distinction between the language spoken by the Slovaks as their native tongue and 'their literary medium. The latter for some time wa:s (besides Latin) the old Czech liturgical language. On the other hand, most of the philo'logists and literary historians, predominantly of Czech origin, in formulating purely scientific views as to the proper relationship between the Czech and Slovak languages, were influenced by political aspira!tions. Recent studies based on scientific principles of philology, phonology, etymology lexicography, and grammar now show that the original Slovak terminology, wJth rare exceptions, goes back to the original roots of a native Slovak language essentially distinct from every other Slovanic tongue. The confusion created by the failure to draw a proper distinction between the native language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language was, however, only partly responsible for the erroneous view that Slovak was merely a dialect of the Czech language or that there was something like a "Czechoslovak language" (10). Theories on the existence of a "Czechoslovak language" were creat ed even after one hundred years of the existence of the Slovak literary language which was accepted by both Slovak Catholics and Lutherans in 1844, and after two hundred years' use by the Catholics of their own vernacular as the literary medium around the University of Trnava, founded in 1635. Consequently, the main reason for the confusion was of a political nature, even if presented in "scientific" form. Professor F. Travnicek, for instance, used geography as his main argument for his theory of the "Czechoslovak language." The fact that the Czechs and Slovaks inhabited the present area from the sixth century was used by him as an argumen1t that they had a common ,l anguage. In his "ffistoricka mluvnice ceskoslovenska" (Historic Czechoslovak Grammar) he stated: "The ancient Czechoslovak language lasted from the time of its inde- SLOVAKIA 35 pendent establishment as a full-fledged language, from the siJd:h to the end of the tenth century, and is similar to the prehistoric tongue. The chief condition of this independent development was that our ancestors were separated geographically from the rest of the Slavs" (11). Geographical factors can hardly take precedence over linguistic data, and even if we accept this theory, another factor, the separation of Czechs and Siovaks from the ninth century, would be in favor of an independent development of the Slovak spoken tongue. Slovak philologists and linguists Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Sttanislav, Novak, etc. (12) rejected, therefore the Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic form,s of the Slovak tongue and, by linguistic methods of phonology as we11 as by a comparative study, they arrived at new conclusions as to the origin and development of the S'lovak language. These conclusions were ultimately accepted by contemporary Czech as well as other Slovanic philologists and linguists (13). As a result of this development the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a refation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into the Slovak, and vice versa, as the Polish or Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long ~ime ago, and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and phi'lologists to recognize the irrefutable. REFERENCES (1) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, Brat islava, Slov,e nska akadeania vied, 1953, p. 7. (2) IDr. Vincent Blanar: Bibliografia jazykovedy na Slovensku v rokoch 1939-1947, Bratislava, Slovensika a1~ademia vied a umeni, 195'0, p. 210. This work ,contaiins 11,17 titles, Olf which aipprox.ilmatel,y 1000 were pulblished dudrug the existen-ce Olf the Slovak R~bl!i.'c . .Altogether Blanar presents an almost complete picture of Ling,ud,stic and philological w<ll'ks, pwblished in boo!k form or in periodicals, in the fiields olf ,g eneral philiodog,y, comparative linguistiics Olf lndoEuirQPean languages, Sl'O'Vanic philology and! the stu~ Olf the Slova!k lairugua,ge. See al!so Dr. L. Dvonc:1Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy za roky 1948-1952, Matica Slovenska, 1957. 36 SLOVAKIA (3) See, for examI?:le, the eval,uartion o.f U. Stur as a philo1o,gist in the book "l!udovit Stur, Slovencina" nasa," which was prepared and annotated by Dr. J. Ambms and has been evaliwa1ted lirug,uirstdlcailily by Dr. V. Blanar. According to Blanar, Stur kept pa,ce with the European philologic:d schools o.f that time and its foremosrt ip·h enomena, a,n d his studies at Hal!le predestined him to beco,me, in Slovanic and Slovaik cir,cwmstances, one of the frrst representatives of the newest methods on theories in phi'lology. (4) Pravidla slovenskeho pravopisu, p. 6. Anton Bemo'1ak 01762--1813) codified the Slovak literary lang,ua,ge as used by the Slovak Catholics from tJhe time of the co-uniter-Reformation and esipeoi,a,1ly since .16315, the year Olf the fo.u,ndatJion of the second university in Slovakia. at Trnaiva. Bernolak gaive a solid fowndati-on to the Slovak literary .l!anguag,e, based on the Western Sllovaik dialecrt, in hiis works: Disserta,t io philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum : Linguae slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae usitatae compendiosa simul at facilis o,rthographia" (Bra1tislava, 1'7'3171); "Grammatica slavica" (1790), and in his huge pentalingual dictionary, pu1blished after his deatih, in 1825. Marbin Hattala (1821-1903'), who later became a professor at the University of Praigue, codid'ied the reform in'1:rod1uced by U. Stur, which was a,o cepted in, 1844 by both Slovak Oatholiics and Protestants. His "Kratka mluvnica slovenska" CShor.t Slovak Gr•aimlillar), p,wblished in 1852, gaive a scientific bas-is and for:m to Stur's reform. Saimuel Czaimbel (1856-1 909), one o.f the greatest Slovak philologists, enniiched Sl,o vak phi,lol1ogy by seveml scholarly wo·r'ks regardiillg dialectology, monphology, and lexicol-o,gy. His main woriks are "Slovensky pravopis" (Slovak Orithogra-phy, 1890) and "Rukovat' spisovnej reci slovenskej " QManual of the Slovalk Liternry Larug-uage, 1-902). For detai:ls concernirug Bernolak, Haittaila, and Czaimbel, see Prof. E. Pauliny: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny." (5) Colillipare V. Blanar: Biblografia. (6) Pioneer and valuable worik iin, this d'i rection was done partLcularliy by Professor Dr. Jul iius Led enyi-La1d ziansky in the termino:lo.gy o.f medical science. (7) Prof. Dr. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, Prague, Statni pedagogicke naildiadatelstvi, 1:954. (8) (Prof. Dr. Eugen Pa,Ulliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bratisl-aiva, S1ovenska akadem!iia, vied a umeni, 19418. In the introduction to his book, Pa-wliny understands the history o.f the 1-angu,age as the history Olf the oriigin, disaippear ance and cha,n,ges Olf its i,ndi'Vidua1l styles. Ho:wever, in the book i ts-elf, he d'ivide:d the his-tor-y of the Slovak 1iitera['y laruguage accord!i,u,g to the languages which wer e used ,by the Slov,aiks as literary la~ua,ges in addition to the sipoken vern,a,culiar from the time of the Gr eater Moravia•. On page 5, he writes: "Al,thouglh, in this case, the p er,iod of the actual Sll,ovaik litera['y laillguaige ca,n. begin only with Bernolak, or with t he p eriod shortly befor e Bemolak, nevertheless it is not poss,iJble to begin the history of t he literary languages of the Slovaks either with Bernolak or Stur, but it is ,n,ecessa,r,y t,o go deep into 1Jhe pa st, aH the way to the ver y begin nings o.f the histor iical p er iod o.f our na-ti-on in the Gr eater Moravian epoch, na,y, in ceritain matters, it is ,necessary to go even 1 1 1 1 SLOVAKIA 37 further, into the pre-histork period, when our ancestors were not yet baptized and did not particiiPate im, the European cul<ture whiich was introduced to us by Chrisit-iani:ty." (9) Prof. A. Mraz: Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Braitisfava, Slovenska akademia vied a UJ!l1eni, 1948. (lJl) F . Travnicek: Historicka mluvnice ceskoslovenska, Brno, 1935, p. 21-23. (10) This thesis wa,s propa•g ated by Dr. Ed'Uard Benes throurg h his pUJblication Detruisez I' Autriche, Paris, 11916, and, with the helip of Czech philologists, it penetrated also inito many western university oiTcles and was reoeated by the Slavists on this continent a·s well. (13) Besides aiuthors of Slovak origin, (Hrobak, Konus, Potocek, and others), the correct attitude towards the Slovak lang;uage, in the Englislh lan!guage works, was taken particUilarly by Professor Alfred Senn in the syunrposi,um A Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L. I. Strakhovsky, Camlbridlge, Massachu,s etts, Harvard UnLversity Press, 1949. (12) Profiessor Bartek pub1'ished, boith in Slovakia and in exiile, a numlber of prul. 0Iogica1! wo,r ks, S'Ome Off w,h ich were piulblished i,n, French and Eng-lish. Elana.r"s "Bibliografia" cites thirteen titles of his works. 'Ilhe best known philologists, besides B'artek, are S-tanislav and Novak. StaniS'lav is known parti<cUilarliy for his research i,n,to the OyriJoJMethodian period and for his works in toponyimy. Novak was siJenced by the cOJin1Inunist regime; Sitanislav is still actiive. Bartek performed a very meritorious service, pa-r ticular,l'Y by foundilllg the peri10dical "Slovenska rec" (Slovak Langua,ge), and by his uncOJinpramising stand in the so-called "ma1ticne" (Slovak [nstitu1:e) strwggles for the purity of the S1ov,a k language and its separate development since Vhe d isaippearance of the Old Slovanic laruguaige. 1 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "President Benes was always of the opinion, and in his latest statemen!ts rulways stressed, tihait OUT pact of •a lliance with Soviet Russia and our friendshiJp with other Slav na,.. tions must not encroach on our friendly and cordial re1ations with other democratic states. This is the natural desire, shared by an enormous majority of our people, and nothing prevents us from keeping the confidence of the democratic states and strengthening and deepening our friendship with our great western Allies. Moscow, too, wa.Illts to fol4ow this line of poliicy. rt will, however, be necessary for certain prejudices of the West with regard to· the Soviet Union, which are still existing, to be swept away." - Premier Fierlinger of Czecho-Slovakia, O'WI Bulletin, June 1, 1945.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology Description An account of the resource Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 25-37 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/82fc210695be9da9bc165925fd863e6f.pdf 24712f5e75a25281f7aa6dd3ff064a9c PDF Text Text 38 SLOVAKIA LET'S PUT SLOVAK IN THE CURRICULUM The early Slovaks in America - of sturdy peasant stock - were individualists. They wanted to have their own homes, their own churches and schools, fraternal benefit societies, newspapers, civic, social, and cultural institutions. For the most part, these were the things they could not have in the own homeland, Slovakia, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were then, as they are now strictly SLOVAK, not CZECHO-SLOV AK ( with or without hyphen) enterprises. And the Slovaks in America did organize and build the things they wanted. Today in America, there are some 370 Slovak churches, 240 parochial and Sunday schools, a dozen fraternals, 20 newspapers and periodicals, and many Slovak cultural, civic, and social societies. It did ndt take the Slovak pioneers in America long to learn enough English to get along and to adapt themselves to their new environment. The American way of life appealed to them. In fact, compared to life "back home," life in America - with all its initial hardships was a thou.sand times better. In America a man was free! The Slovaks built their own churches and schools to enhance their own cultural level and to preserve their Slovak heritage in the "new homeland" - their language and their religious and national traditions. There it was that the oldsters were taught English and the youngsters Slovak. Father Stephen Furdek, known as the "Apostle of American Slovaks," provided the text books. In time the Slovaks of America had - and still have - everything needed to perform the mission for which their institutions were established. They kept the faith of their fathers, but as the years rolled by the Slovaks broke away to a great extent from the past, the ideals of their forefathers, as far as preserving the Slovak language and national customs was concerned. It is unfortunate that this has come to pass. And more so that it happened within two generations removed from Father Furdek (he died in 1915) and the Slovak pioneers. Whether the trend will continue depends for the most part on the administrators �SLOVAKIA 39 of these S 1 o v a k institutions. All is not yet lost : the churches and schools built by the Slovaks in America are still with us. They can still be used to enhance and preserve the heritage of the Slovaks and to the advantage our America. Of course, we can expect the same old question to pop up in places: "But why teach Slovak?" Teach it for the same reasons that so many other seemingly "impractical" subjects are taught in our primary and secondary schools. No one can foresee with any great degree of accuracy just what any child will be able to use later on in life. And so it is with the Slovak language, too. Besides the sentimental reason for offering children Slovak in Slovak parochial schools, there are practical reasons a.Jso. These were brought to the fore recently by our Government and by eminent educators, including members of the American Catholic Hierarchy. His Excellency, Bishop John J. Wright of Pittsburgh, early in the year called upon Americans to understand the languages of other peoples of the world as a prelude to understanding the peoples themselves. He was then Bishop of the Worcester Diocese. Speaking at Assumption CoHege, Bishop Wright said that "perhaps the greatest embarrassment for Americans abroad is that we can't understand and talk with other peoples unless they are willing to learn our language." Citing a statement from St. Augustine that "a man is more at home with his dog than he is with another man whose language he cannot understand," Bishop Wright commented that "in the presence of a man whose language we cannot speak, we are almost fatally and mutually antagonistic." "Hence," Bishop Wright said, "it is tremendously important that our children be taught languages - that in language they may find the genious of people, since it is in language that people express ideas." "Thus we may come to a greater understanding of other people and a mutual sympathy with them, so that eventually man may become as at home with other men as with his dog," Bishop Wright concluded. �40 SLOVAKIA Bob Considine, syndicated columnist, also speaking at the Worcester, Mass., school, stated: "We can't go into foreign countries any longer as the arrogant conquerer. We must go as friends and equals, not as superiors, not trying to lord it over them. Yet in a way we do lord it over them by not knowing their languages and by being contemptuous of their customs." Elementary school teachers and administrators, attending the 56th annual convention of the Nationa,l Catholic IDducational Association in Atlantic City (March 30 to April 3, 1959) discussed the usefulness and feasibility of teaching foreign languages in the elementary schools. Sister Mary Helen of the department of modern languages of St. Teresa College, Winona, Minn., spoke on the "Preparation of Elementary School Teachers for the Foreign Language Program." Sister Raymond de Jesus, assistant dean of the Diocesan Teachers College, Putnam, Conn., discussed "Materials and Methods for the Foreign Language Program in the Elementary School." Father Frederick A. McGuire, C. M. , executive secretary of the Mission Secretariat, a clearing house of information for overseas missionary societies, addressed the group on "Foreign Languages in the Elementary School - Their Significance for the World Mission of the Catholic Church." In World War II, we found out just how badly we had neglected the teaching of foreign languages. Our armies were scattered throughout the world. Communication had to be carried on through interpreters who had been hurriedly and, therefore, inadequately trained in foreign languages. The situation has been remedied to a certain extent, but there still is a very great need of language experts in all departments of U. S. Government, particularly in the Foreign Service Department and the United States Information Agency. It is obvious that it is far better to have people in service with a thorough understanding of the historical background of a certain people than people only with a linguistic knowledge. Only a year and half ago, a survey disclosed that more than half of our government's diplomats did not have a speaking knowledge of the language of the countries �SLOVAKIA 41 to which they were sent (THE N.EJW YORK TIMES, Nov. 18, 1959). Dr. Harold Hoskins, director of the Foreign Service Institute, now reports that aH members of the Foreign Service have taken mandatory tests in foreign languages since the alarming survey was published. A special foreign language school was established in Arlington, Va., by the State Department. Congress made more funds available for language training in the present fiscal year than it did for all kinds of training four years ago. As a result, the training school in Arlington is perhaps one of the most efficient in the nation. Sixteen specialists make up the faculty for the teaching of foreign languages, while ninety-nine instructors teach in their native tongues, with little or no English spoken during instruction periods. "The problem now," Dr. Hoskins says, "is to develop specialists in the critical though less widely used, languages and dialects of many parts of Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa." Interesting it is to note that Dr. Hoskins' report lists 11 Foreign Service officers who are now available "with a working knowledge, or higher proficiency," in SLOVAK. Furthermore, the director of the Foreign Service Institute estimates that the State Department will have 85 to 90 per cent of its officers reach "professional proficiency" in at least one foreign language by 1962. The stress today is particularly on Russian for obvious reasons. Academic Russian is being introduced into more publis schools every year. Other Slavic languages may be neglected, because, some authorities say, they don't mean as much as the Russian language. What they really mean is that they know little about Russian and even less about the other Slovanic (Slavic) languages. Even in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the stress is on Russian, though we know, for example, that over one-third of all the Slovaks in America are settled there (there are about two million Americans of Slovak descent in the USA). And the stress is on Russian and Russian only, even though Slovak, in my considered opinion, is the key language to all Slovanic languages. I have recommended (to the Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., for �42 SLOVAKIA example) - and still recommend - at least one semester of Slovak for students of any Slavic language. It makes the study of the other Slavic languages more facile, since it contains elements common to all the Slavic languages, elements that are not found in the others. It is true that the various Slavic languages have an even greater affinity than do other related language groups, but I earnestly suggest a serious consideration of non-Russian Slavic language background as a valuable and practical basis for the study of academic Russian. Over a generation ago, Carl W. Hasek (Higher Education Circular No. 23, U. S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Education. 1920) urged a greater awareness of the practical need for a wider study of the Slovanic (Slavic) languages and cultures in our schools, citing various reasons, esthetic and practical, pertinent to this matter. The esthetic consideration - the direct enjoyment of, for example, the rich Russian literature - is as valid now as it was then, while the practical reasons have taken on even greater urgency. Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, writing in the PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL JOURNAL (October, 1958), considered the question of the most likely source of Russian language candidates in the public schools of the Commonwealth. She said: "Census statistics reveal that conservatively estimated there are fifty to one hundred thousand pupils of Slavic heritage in the schools of Pennsylvania. It is generally accepted among leaders in the groups that there is a threegeneration span in which these groups, with their rich folklore and their frequently devout religious affiliation, have tended to keep their traditions, culture, and language alive by means of family, church, and fraternal activities." Mrs. Peters is correct; census statistics, as quoted, are very conservative. The fourth generation is with us and the traditions of the Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, Poles, Slovenians, and Russians - plus those of other nonEnglish groups - are still in evidence. And they will be for some time to come. �SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov. � 38 SLOVAKIA LET'S PUT SLOVAK IN THE CURRICULUM The early Slovaks in America - of sturdy peasant stock - were individualists. They wanted to have their own homes, their own churches and schools, fraternal benefit societies, newspapers, civic, social, and cultural institutions. For the most part, these were the things they could not have in the own homeland, Slovakia, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were then, as they are now strictly SLOVAK, not CZECHO-SLOV AK ( with or without hyphen) enterprises. And the Slovaks in America did organize and build the things they wanted. Today in America, there are some 370 Slovak churches, 240 parochial and Sunday schools, a dozen fraternals, 20 newspapers and periodicals, and many Slovak cultural, civic, and social societies. It did ndt take the Slovak pioneers in America long to learn enough English to get along and to adapt themselves to their new environment. The American way of life appealed to them. In fact, compared to life "back home," life in America - with all its initial hardships was a thou.sand times better. In America a man was free! The Slovaks built their own churches and schools to enhance their own cultural level and to preserve their Slovak heritage in the "new homeland" - their language and their religious and national traditions. There it was that the oldsters were taught English and the youngsters Slovak. Father Stephen Furdek, known as the "Apostle of American Slovaks," provided the text books. In time the Slovaks of America had - and still have - everything needed to perform the mission for which their institutions were established. They kept the faith of their fathers, but as the years rolled by the Slovaks broke away to a great extent from the past, the ideals of their forefathers, as far as preserving the Slovak language and national customs was concerned. It is unfortunate that this has come to pass. And more so that it happened within two generations removed from Father Furdek (he died in 1915) and the Slovak pioneers. Whether the trend will continue depends for the most part on the administrators �SLOVAKIA 39 of these S 1 o v a k institutions. All is not yet lost : the churches and schools built by the Slovaks in America are still with us. They can still be used to enhance and preserve the heritage of the Slovaks and to the advantage our America. Of course, we can expect the same old question to pop up in places: "But why teach Slovak?" Teach it for the same reasons that so many other seemingly "impractical" subjects are taught in our primary and secondary schools. No one can foresee with any great degree of accuracy just what any child will be able to use later on in life. And so it is with the Slovak language, too. Besides the sentimental reason for offering children Slovak in Slovak parochial schools, there are practical reasons a.Jso. These were brought to the fore recently by our Government and by eminent educators, including members of the American Catholic Hierarchy. His Excellency, Bishop John J. Wright of Pittsburgh, early in the year called upon Americans to understand the languages of other peoples of the world as a prelude to understanding the peoples themselves. He was then Bishop of the Worcester Diocese. Speaking at Assumption CoHege, Bishop Wright said that "perhaps the greatest embarrassment for Americans abroad is that we can't understand and talk with other peoples unless they are willing to learn our language." Citing a statement from St. Augustine that "a man is more at home with his dog than he is with another man whose language he cannot understand," Bishop Wright commented that "in the presence of a man whose language we cannot speak, we are almost fatally and mutually antagonistic." "Hence," Bishop Wright said, "it is tremendously important that our children be taught languages - that in language they may find the genious of people, since it is in language that people express ideas." "Thus we may come to a greater understanding of other people and a mutual sympathy with them, so that eventually man may become as at home with other men as with his dog," Bishop Wright concluded. �40 SLOVAKIA Bob Considine, syndicated columnist, also speaking at the Worcester, Mass., school, stated: "We can't go into foreign countries any longer as the arrogant conquerer. We must go as friends and equals, not as superiors, not trying to lord it over them. Yet in a way we do lord it over them by not knowing their languages and by being contemptuous of their customs." Elementary school teachers and administrators, attending the 56th annual convention of the Nationa,l Catholic IDducational Association in Atlantic City (March 30 to April 3, 1959) discussed the usefulness and feasibility of teaching foreign languages in the elementary schools. Sister Mary Helen of the department of modern languages of St. Teresa College, Winona, Minn., spoke on the "Preparation of Elementary School Teachers for the Foreign Language Program." Sister Raymond de Jesus, assistant dean of the Diocesan Teachers College, Putnam, Conn., discussed "Materials and Methods for the Foreign Language Program in the Elementary School." Father Frederick A. McGuire, C. M. , executive secretary of the Mission Secretariat, a clearing house of information for overseas missionary societies, addressed the group on "Foreign Languages in the Elementary School - Their Significance for the World Mission of the Catholic Church." In World War II, we found out just how badly we had neglected the teaching of foreign languages. Our armies were scattered throughout the world. Communication had to be carried on through interpreters who had been hurriedly and, therefore, inadequately trained in foreign languages. The situation has been remedied to a certain extent, but there still is a very great need of language experts in all departments of U. S. Government, particularly in the Foreign Service Department and the United States Information Agency. It is obvious that it is far better to have people in service with a thorough understanding of the historical background of a certain people than people only with a linguistic knowledge. Only a year and half ago, a survey disclosed that more than half of our government's diplomats did not have a speaking knowledge of the language of the countries �SLOVAKIA 41 to which they were sent (THE N.EJW YORK TIMES, Nov. 18, 1959). Dr. Harold Hoskins, director of the Foreign Service Institute, now reports that aH members of the Foreign Service have taken mandatory tests in foreign languages since the alarming survey was published. A special foreign language school was established in Arlington, Va., by the State Department. Congress made more funds available for language training in the present fiscal year than it did for all kinds of training four years ago. As a result, the training school in Arlington is perhaps one of the most efficient in the nation. Sixteen specialists make up the faculty for the teaching of foreign languages, while ninety-nine instructors teach in their native tongues, with little or no English spoken during instruction periods. "The problem now," Dr. Hoskins says, "is to develop specialists in the critical though less widely used, languages and dialects of many parts of Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa." Interesting it is to note that Dr. Hoskins' report lists 11 Foreign Service officers who are now available "with a working knowledge, or higher proficiency," in SLOVAK. Furthermore, the director of the Foreign Service Institute estimates that the State Department will have 85 to 90 per cent of its officers reach "professional proficiency" in at least one foreign language by 1962. The stress today is particularly on Russian for obvious reasons. Academic Russian is being introduced into more publis schools every year. Other Slavic languages may be neglected, because, some authorities say, they don't mean as much as the Russian language. What they really mean is that they know little about Russian and even less about the other Slovanic (Slavic) languages. Even in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the stress is on Russian, though we know, for example, that over one-third of all the Slovaks in America are settled there (there are about two million Americans of Slovak descent in the USA). And the stress is on Russian and Russian only, even though Slovak, in my considered opinion, is the key language to all Slovanic languages. I have recommended (to the Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., for �42 SLOVAKIA example) - and still recommend - at least one semester of Slovak for students of any Slavic language. It makes the study of the other Slavic languages more facile, since it contains elements common to all the Slavic languages, elements that are not found in the others. It is true that the various Slavic languages have an even greater affinity than do other related language groups, but I earnestly suggest a serious consideration of non-Russian Slavic language background as a valuable and practical basis for the study of academic Russian. Over a generation ago, Carl W. Hasek (Higher Education Circular No. 23, U. S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Education. 1920) urged a greater awareness of the practical need for a wider study of the Slovanic (Slavic) languages and cultures in our schools, citing various reasons, esthetic and practical, pertinent to this matter. The esthetic consideration - the direct enjoyment of, for example, the rich Russian literature - is as valid now as it was then, while the practical reasons have taken on even greater urgency. Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, writing in the PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL JOURNAL (October, 1958), considered the question of the most likely source of Russian language candidates in the public schools of the Commonwealth. She said: "Census statistics reveal that conservatively estimated there are fifty to one hundred thousand pupils of Slavic heritage in the schools of Pennsylvania. It is generally accepted among leaders in the groups that there is a threegeneration span in which these groups, with their rich folklore and their frequently devout religious affiliation, have tended to keep their traditions, culture, and language alive by means of family, church, and fraternal activities." Mrs. Peters is correct; census statistics, as quoted, are very conservative. The fourth generation is with us and the traditions of the Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, Poles, Slovenians, and Russians - plus those of other nonEnglish groups - are still in evidence. And they will be for some time to come. �SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 38 SLOVAKIA LET'S PUT SLOVAK IN THE CURRICULUM The early Slovaks in America - of sturdy peasant stock - were individualists. They wanted to have their own homes, their own churches and schools, fraternal benefit societies, newspapers, civic, social, and cultural institutions. For the most part, these were the things they could not have in the own homeland, Slovakia, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were then, as they are now strictly SLOVAK, not CZECHO-SLOV AK ( with or without hyphen) enterprises. And the Slovaks in America did organize and build the things they wanted. Today in America, there are some 370 Slovak churches, 240 parochial and Sunday schools, a dozen fraternals, 20 newspapers and periodicals, and many Slovak cultural, civic, and social societies. It did ndt take the Slovak pioneers in America long to learn enough English to get along and to adapt themselves to their new environment. The American way of life appealed to them. In fact, compared to life "back home," life in America - with all its initial hardships was a thou.sand times better. In America a man was free! The Slovaks built their own churches and schools to enhance their own cultural level and to preserve their Slovak heritage in the "new homeland" - their language and their religious and national traditions. There it was that the oldsters were taught English and the youngsters Slovak. Father Stephen Furdek, known as the "Apostle of American Slovaks," provided the text books. In time the Slovaks of America had - and still have - everything needed to perform the mission for which their institutions were established. They kept the faith of their fathers, but as the years rolled by the Slovaks broke away to a great extent from the past, the ideals of their forefathers, as far as preserving the Slovak language and national customs was concerned. It is unfortunate that this has come to pass. And more so that it happened within two generations removed from Father Furdek (he died in 1915) and the Slovak pioneers. Whether the trend will continue depends for the most part on the administrators SLOVAKIA 39 of these S 1 o v a k institutions. All is not yet lost : the churches and schools built by the Slovaks in America are still with us. They can still be used to enhance and preserve the heritage of the Slovaks and to the advantage our America. Of course, we can expect the same old question to pop up in places: "But why teach Slovak?" Teach it for the same reasons that so many other seemingly "impractical" subjects are taught in our primary and secondary schools. No one can foresee with any great degree of accuracy just what any child will be able to use later on in life. And so it is with the Slovak language, too. Besides the sentimental reason for offering children Slovak in Slovak parochial schools, there are practical reasons a.Jso. These were brought to the fore recently by our Government and by eminent educators, including members of the American Catholic Hierarchy. His Excellency, Bishop John J. Wright of Pittsburgh, early in the year called upon Americans to understand the languages of other peoples of the world as a prelude to understanding the peoples themselves. He was then Bishop of the Worcester Diocese. Speaking at Assumption CoHege, Bishop Wright said that "perhaps the greatest embarrassment for Americans abroad is that we can't understand and talk with other peoples unless they are willing to learn our language." Citing a statement from St. Augustine that "a man is more at home with his dog than he is with another man whose language he cannot understand," Bishop Wright commented that "in the presence of a man whose language we cannot speak, we are almost fatally and mutually antagonistic." "Hence," Bishop Wright said, "it is tremendously important that our children be taught languages - that in language they may find the genious of people, since it is in language that people express ideas." "Thus we may come to a greater understanding of other people and a mutual sympathy with them, so that eventually man may become as at home with other men as with his dog," Bishop Wright concluded. 40 SLOVAKIA Bob Considine, syndicated columnist, also speaking at the Worcester, Mass., school, stated: "We can't go into foreign countries any longer as the arrogant conquerer. We must go as friends and equals, not as superiors, not trying to lord it over them. Yet in a way we do lord it over them by not knowing their languages and by being contemptuous of their customs." Elementary school teachers and administrators, attending the 56th annual convention of the Nationa,l Catholic IDducational Association in Atlantic City (March 30 to April 3, 1959) discussed the usefulness and feasibility of teaching foreign languages in the elementary schools. Sister Mary Helen of the department of modern languages of St. Teresa College, Winona, Minn., spoke on the "Preparation of Elementary School Teachers for the Foreign Language Program." Sister Raymond de Jesus, assistant dean of the Diocesan Teachers College, Putnam, Conn., discussed "Materials and Methods for the Foreign Language Program in the Elementary School." Father Frederick A. McGuire, C. M. , executive secretary of the Mission Secretariat, a clearing house of information for overseas missionary societies, addressed the group on "Foreign Languages in the Elementary School - Their Significance for the World Mission of the Catholic Church." In World War II, we found out just how badly we had neglected the teaching of foreign languages. Our armies were scattered throughout the world. Communication had to be carried on through interpreters who had been hurriedly and, therefore, inadequately trained in foreign languages. The situation has been remedied to a certain extent, but there still is a very great need of language experts in all departments of U. S. Government, particularly in the Foreign Service Department and the United States Information Agency. It is obvious that it is far better to have people in service with a thorough understanding of the historical background of a certain people than people only with a linguistic knowledge. Only a year and half ago, a survey disclosed that more than half of our government's diplomats did not have a speaking knowledge of the language of the countries SLOVAKIA 41 to which they were sent (THE N.EJW YORK TIMES, Nov. 18, 1959). Dr. Harold Hoskins, director of the Foreign Service Institute, now reports that aH members of the Foreign Service have taken mandatory tests in foreign languages since the alarming survey was published. A special foreign language school was established in Arlington, Va., by the State Department. Congress made more funds available for language training in the present fiscal year than it did for all kinds of training four years ago. As a result, the training school in Arlington is perhaps one of the most efficient in the nation. Sixteen specialists make up the faculty for the teaching of foreign languages, while ninety-nine instructors teach in their native tongues, with little or no English spoken during instruction periods. "The problem now," Dr. Hoskins says, "is to develop specialists in the critical though less widely used, languages and dialects of many parts of Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa." Interesting it is to note that Dr. Hoskins' report lists 11 Foreign Service officers who are now available "with a working knowledge, or higher proficiency," in SLOVAK. Furthermore, the director of the Foreign Service Institute estimates that the State Department will have 85 to 90 per cent of its officers reach "professional proficiency" in at least one foreign language by 1962. The stress today is particularly on Russian for obvious reasons. Academic Russian is being introduced into more publis schools every year. Other Slavic languages may be neglected, because, some authorities say, they don't mean as much as the Russian language. What they really mean is that they know little about Russian and even less about the other Slovanic (Slavic) languages. Even in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the stress is on Russian, though we know, for example, that over one-third of all the Slovaks in America are settled there (there are about two million Americans of Slovak descent in the USA). And the stress is on Russian and Russian only, even though Slovak, in my considered opinion, is the key language to all Slovanic languages. I have recommended (to the Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., for 42 SLOVAKIA example) - and still recommend - at least one semester of Slovak for students of any Slavic language. It makes the study of the other Slavic languages more facile, since it contains elements common to all the Slavic languages, elements that are not found in the others. It is true that the various Slavic languages have an even greater affinity than do other related language groups, but I earnestly suggest a serious consideration of non-Russian Slavic language background as a valuable and practical basis for the study of academic Russian. Over a generation ago, Carl W. Hasek (Higher Education Circular No. 23, U. S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Education. 1920) urged a greater awareness of the practical need for a wider study of the Slovanic (Slavic) languages and cultures in our schools, citing various reasons, esthetic and practical, pertinent to this matter. The esthetic consideration - the direct enjoyment of, for example, the rich Russian literature - is as valid now as it was then, while the practical reasons have taken on even greater urgency. Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, writing in the PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL JOURNAL (October, 1958), considered the question of the most likely source of Russian language candidates in the public schools of the Commonwealth. She said: "Census statistics reveal that conservatively estimated there are fifty to one hundred thousand pupils of Slavic heritage in the schools of Pennsylvania. It is generally accepted among leaders in the groups that there is a threegeneration span in which these groups, with their rich folklore and their frequently devout religious affiliation, have tended to keep their traditions, culture, and language alive by means of family, church, and fraternal activities." Mrs. Peters is correct; census statistics, as quoted, are very conservative. The fourth generation is with us and the traditions of the Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, Poles, Slovenians, and Russians - plus those of other nonEnglish groups - are still in evidence. And they will be for some time to come. SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Let's Put Slovak in the Curriculum Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 38-43 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a18dfa949f9139b796fb787da525bfe3.pdf 8ceabc1ae9653b3a3c11c0225762703a PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov. �44 SLOVAKIA In 1436, King Zigmund gave Cachtice to the provincial txeasurer, Michael Orsagh, whose family held the fortress until 1567. The last of the Orsaghs was Christopher. During this period the Hussite leader Svehla was a prisoner in the fortress; he was later put to death in Kostelany. In 1569 King Maximilian rented the fortress for 50,000 Gold crowns to Ursula Kanifa:j and her son Francis Nadasdy, with the stipulation that in case the fortress would be put 111p for sa,Ie, Francis Nadasdy would have first option to buy. In the year 1602, N adasdy did buy the fortress from king Rudolph II. Nada sdy was the unfortunate husband of the infamous Alzbeta (Elizabeth) Bathoricka. The story of Alz,beta Bathoricka, sordid in every detail, is nevertheless true. It begins on a morning of a beautiful day in May. Alzbeta had many servants, girl servants, who took care of her every whim. She was a proud and haughty woman, but no,t beautiful. A young girl servant, com'bing her mistress's hair, accidentally pulled out a small tuft. Alzbeta became infuriated and struck the girl across the mouth, drawing blood. Few drops of the young girl's blood happened to fall on the uplifted face of the cruel mistress. Looking into the mirror, she imagined that where the drops of blood fell, the skin seemed much smoother and more youthful. Suddenly an insane idea began to germinate in her mind: if the drops of blood did maJke her skin smoother and younger loolking, why not enhance her beauty, by bathing in the blood of young girls? It could be that the blood of young maidens was the long sought for fountain of youth, she thought, and the more she thought rubout it, the stronger her dete:r,mination became to use the blood bath. She needed accomplices, but it was not di'5ficult to enlist the services of some of her serivants for a consiideraJble grant of money and special pri'Vileges. 1 BLOOD OF 600 SLOVAK GffiLS The serwants went out into the neighboring villages and towns and by means fair and foul, by promises and intimidations, brought many young girls to the Castle. The girls ,w ere treated ,very nicely for a time, and then mur- �SLOVAKIA 45 dered in the most cruel manner, their blood supplying the "fountain of yO'llth" for the ghou1ish mistress. It 1s said that some 600 young girls were murdered by the mistress of Cachtice. Of course the disruppearance of these girls could not be kept secret forever. Rumors began to circulate, but Bathorio'ka was a mighty lady. She was mistress not only of many thousand acres of land, but mistress of many thousands of lives. She had the power of life or death over her underlings. And so the people under her dared not e~press in words the fears that were in their hearts. They suffered mutely, seeing their daughters disappear one by one. Bathorioka had powerful connections; she was a favorite friend of the Palatine, being invited to the marriage feast af his daughter, Judith. The feast lasted for a whole year. But there was one person who did not fear the infamous woman. He was the parish priest of Cachtice. After dbtaining all the proof he could, he set out for Bratislava, where the court was then in session. The priest had little success at that time, but in the year 1610 the Palatine George Thurzo, due to pressure of public o,pinion, decided to investigate. With two nephews of Bathori cka, Zrinsky and Drugeth respectively, he set out for the fortress, where he learned the bitter truth. Entering the fortress unheralded, he caught Bathoricka in the act olf killing two young maidens. He found other corpses on a manure pile outside the fortress. He oroered the siezure of the castle and put Alzbeta in a dungeon together with her helpers John FickoUjvary, Helen Jo, Kathryn Benicka, and Dorothy Szentes. These last were taken to the Palatine's Castle and condemned to death. On January 7, 1611, the court in Bytca handed down this decree: "We, Theodosius Strmsky of Sul'oiv, the highest magistrate of his Majesty the King, Gaspar Orodoy of Trencin, John David of St. Peter, George Lehotsky, Nicholas Hrabovsky, John Zaturecky, John Borsic'ky, Grubriel Hlinidky, Michael Tusins:ky, Raiphael Kasoivsky, Benedict Kozar, Stephen Marsfovsky, Stephen Alkay, John 1 �46 SLOVAKIA MedNedky, all members of thl,s august court, maike public to a1l whom it may concern that we were called together by the Palatine George Thurzo to the city of Bytca this day, January 7, in the year 1611, to sit in judgment over the deeds of John Fidko and the women Helen, Kathryn, and Dorothy, and found the following to be true: Whereas it is known that Palatine George Thurzo has been constituted to guard the persons and the property of those under his care as Palatine of the county of Ora,,va, to punish the guilty and reward the deserving, amd wishing to do his duty, he could not be deaf and blind to the deeds of one AliJbeta Bathoric!ka., the widow of Flrancis Nadasdy, who was an honoraJble man, deserving much from his country, but whose widow committed deeds of tyranny unheard of since the birth of mran!kind, having done away with innumeralble young girls for the pur,pose of bathing in their blood, he, therefore, caused an investigation to be made of the deeds of one Alzbeta Bathorioka, the investigation based on evidence presented against her by the townsipoople. The truth of the accusations were subsequently sulbstantiated by her own servants, accomplices in her many crimes. Hearing of the cruelties, supposedJy committed in the Cachtice Castle; His Highness, Pafatine George Th1ll"IZo, returning from celebrations in Presporok (now Bratisla,,va) in company of the two nephews of Al2Jb.e ta Bathoricka, Nicholas Zrinsky and Juraj Drugeth, and a large following of friends and ~oldiers, unexpectedly visited Cachtice, and at the very entrance to the Castle was confronted by mute evidence in the form of the mutHated bodies of two young girls, prOIVing beyond the shadow of doubt that the rumors aJbout Cachtice were true. Alhta Bathoricka was immediately sentenced to life imprisonment in her own Castle. John Fidko, Helen, Dorothy, and Kathryn we,r e ordered to be tried elsewhere, and if proven guilty, to be given sentences commensurate with the hideousness of their crimes so that others may be deterred from committing the same. The accused confessed, particularly Dorothy, who was �SLOVAKIA 47 the chief offender next to her mistre,ss, that they took part in the awful deaths of innocent young girls. The court, finding them guilty imposed the foNowing sentences: Dorothy and Helen shall have their ringers pulled off their hands with burning pincers, then be burned at the staJke. John Ficko, who tOOlk a minor part in the bloody orgies and on account of his ad!vanced age, shall not be tortured, but shall be beheaded and his body burned at the stalke. And since Dorothy and Helen pleaded for Kathryn, and only John F'i.cko witnessed against her, she ~hall be put into prison until such time as her innocence or guilt shall be proven ,b eyond a possible doUJbt. These sentences to be carried out immediately." A~ta BMhorioka was not tried publicly. She was sentenced by George Thurzo to life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Cachtice castle where she died in the year 1614. After her death, the fortress was inherited by her two children, Paul Nadasdy and Kathryn, who was married to Jan Drugeth. A third child, Anna, wife of Nicholas Zrinsky inherited nothing. Paul Nadasdy received the title of Count in the year 1625. After the death of Paul and Anna Nadasdy, the fortress became the property of the many heirs. In the yerur 1703, the fortress was the property of Count Paul Forgaic. In 1707, for reasons not girven, the fortress was besieged by the army of the king and truken. The following year it was wrested from the king by the followers of Francis Rak6czi II. The fortress commanded a beautiful view of the Povazie and Zahorie area. Hrad Cachtice is classed among the larger fortresses of SloJVakia; it had two large towers and three courts. It has been uninhabita:ble since the beginning of the 18th ceI11tury. The people of the vicinity give the old ruins a wide berth. They are superstitious and will bless themselves when passing the ruins. They will tell you that if you listen on a summer's evening, ju.s-t before a sto:rm, you will hear the wailings of the young maidens who were sacrificed to a woman's vrunity. They whisper a ;prayer for them and utter a curse for Ambeta Bathorioka. � SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov. �44 SLOVAKIA In 1436, King Zigmund gave Cachtice to the provincial txeasurer, Michael Orsagh, whose family held the fortress until 1567. The last of the Orsaghs was Christopher. During this period the Hussite leader Svehla was a prisoner in the fortress; he was later put to death in Kostelany. In 1569 King Maximilian rented the fortress for 50,000 Gold crowns to Ursula Kanifa:j and her son Francis Nadasdy, with the stipulation that in case the fortress would be put 111p for sa,Ie, Francis Nadasdy would have first option to buy. In the year 1602, N adasdy did buy the fortress from king Rudolph II. Nada sdy was the unfortunate husband of the infamous Alzbeta (Elizabeth) Bathoricka. The story of Alz,beta Bathoricka, sordid in every detail, is nevertheless true. It begins on a morning of a beautiful day in May. Alzbeta had many servants, girl servants, who took care of her every whim. She was a proud and haughty woman, but no,t beautiful. A young girl servant, com'bing her mistress's hair, accidentally pulled out a small tuft. Alzbeta became infuriated and struck the girl across the mouth, drawing blood. Few drops of the young girl's blood happened to fall on the uplifted face of the cruel mistress. Looking into the mirror, she imagined that where the drops of blood fell, the skin seemed much smoother and more youthful. Suddenly an insane idea began to germinate in her mind: if the drops of blood did maJke her skin smoother and younger loolking, why not enhance her beauty, by bathing in the blood of young girls? It could be that the blood of young maidens was the long sought for fountain of youth, she thought, and the more she thought rubout it, the stronger her dete:r,mination became to use the blood bath. She needed accomplices, but it was not di'5ficult to enlist the services of some of her serivants for a consiideraJble grant of money and special pri'Vileges. 1 BLOOD OF 600 SLOVAK GffiLS The serwants went out into the neighboring villages and towns and by means fair and foul, by promises and intimidations, brought many young girls to the Castle. The girls ,w ere treated ,very nicely for a time, and then mur- �SLOVAKIA 45 dered in the most cruel manner, their blood supplying the "fountain of yO'llth" for the ghou1ish mistress. It 1s said that some 600 young girls were murdered by the mistress of Cachtice. Of course the disruppearance of these girls could not be kept secret forever. Rumors began to circulate, but Bathorio'ka was a mighty lady. She was mistress not only of many thousand acres of land, but mistress of many thousands of lives. She had the power of life or death over her underlings. And so the people under her dared not e~press in words the fears that were in their hearts. They suffered mutely, seeing their daughters disappear one by one. Bathorioka had powerful connections; she was a favorite friend of the Palatine, being invited to the marriage feast af his daughter, Judith. The feast lasted for a whole year. But there was one person who did not fear the infamous woman. He was the parish priest of Cachtice. After dbtaining all the proof he could, he set out for Bratislava, where the court was then in session. The priest had little success at that time, but in the year 1610 the Palatine George Thurzo, due to pressure of public o,pinion, decided to investigate. With two nephews of Bathori cka, Zrinsky and Drugeth respectively, he set out for the fortress, where he learned the bitter truth. Entering the fortress unheralded, he caught Bathoricka in the act olf killing two young maidens. He found other corpses on a manure pile outside the fortress. He oroered the siezure of the castle and put Alzbeta in a dungeon together with her helpers John FickoUjvary, Helen Jo, Kathryn Benicka, and Dorothy Szentes. These last were taken to the Palatine's Castle and condemned to death. On January 7, 1611, the court in Bytca handed down this decree: "We, Theodosius Strmsky of Sul'oiv, the highest magistrate of his Majesty the King, Gaspar Orodoy of Trencin, John David of St. Peter, George Lehotsky, Nicholas Hrabovsky, John Zaturecky, John Borsic'ky, Grubriel Hlinidky, Michael Tusins:ky, Raiphael Kasoivsky, Benedict Kozar, Stephen Marsfovsky, Stephen Alkay, John 1 �46 SLOVAKIA MedNedky, all members of thl,s august court, maike public to a1l whom it may concern that we were called together by the Palatine George Thurzo to the city of Bytca this day, January 7, in the year 1611, to sit in judgment over the deeds of John Fidko and the women Helen, Kathryn, and Dorothy, and found the following to be true: Whereas it is known that Palatine George Thurzo has been constituted to guard the persons and the property of those under his care as Palatine of the county of Ora,,va, to punish the guilty and reward the deserving, amd wishing to do his duty, he could not be deaf and blind to the deeds of one AliJbeta Bathoric!ka., the widow of Flrancis Nadasdy, who was an honoraJble man, deserving much from his country, but whose widow committed deeds of tyranny unheard of since the birth of mran!kind, having done away with innumeralble young girls for the pur,pose of bathing in their blood, he, therefore, caused an investigation to be made of the deeds of one Alzbeta Bathorioka, the investigation based on evidence presented against her by the townsipoople. The truth of the accusations were subsequently sulbstantiated by her own servants, accomplices in her many crimes. Hearing of the cruelties, supposedJy committed in the Cachtice Castle; His Highness, Pafatine George Th1ll"IZo, returning from celebrations in Presporok (now Bratisla,,va) in company of the two nephews of Al2Jb.e ta Bathoricka, Nicholas Zrinsky and Juraj Drugeth, and a large following of friends and ~oldiers, unexpectedly visited Cachtice, and at the very entrance to the Castle was confronted by mute evidence in the form of the mutHated bodies of two young girls, prOIVing beyond the shadow of doubt that the rumors aJbout Cachtice were true. Alhta Bathoricka was immediately sentenced to life imprisonment in her own Castle. John Fidko, Helen, Dorothy, and Kathryn we,r e ordered to be tried elsewhere, and if proven guilty, to be given sentences commensurate with the hideousness of their crimes so that others may be deterred from committing the same. The accused confessed, particularly Dorothy, who was �SLOVAKIA 47 the chief offender next to her mistre,ss, that they took part in the awful deaths of innocent young girls. The court, finding them guilty imposed the foNowing sentences: Dorothy and Helen shall have their ringers pulled off their hands with burning pincers, then be burned at the staJke. John Ficko, who tOOlk a minor part in the bloody orgies and on account of his ad!vanced age, shall not be tortured, but shall be beheaded and his body burned at the stalke. And since Dorothy and Helen pleaded for Kathryn, and only John F'i.cko witnessed against her, she ~hall be put into prison until such time as her innocence or guilt shall be proven ,b eyond a possible doUJbt. These sentences to be carried out immediately." A~ta BMhorioka was not tried publicly. She was sentenced by George Thurzo to life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Cachtice castle where she died in the year 1614. After her death, the fortress was inherited by her two children, Paul Nadasdy and Kathryn, who was married to Jan Drugeth. A third child, Anna, wife of Nicholas Zrinsky inherited nothing. Paul Nadasdy received the title of Count in the year 1625. After the death of Paul and Anna Nadasdy, the fortress became the property of the many heirs. In the yerur 1703, the fortress was the property of Count Paul Forgaic. In 1707, for reasons not girven, the fortress was besieged by the army of the king and truken. The following year it was wrested from the king by the followers of Francis Rak6czi II. The fortress commanded a beautiful view of the Povazie and Zahorie area. Hrad Cachtice is classed among the larger fortresses of SloJVakia; it had two large towers and three courts. It has been uninhabita:ble since the beginning of the 18th ceI11tury. The people of the vicinity give the old ruins a wide berth. They are superstitious and will bless themselves when passing the ruins. They will tell you that if you listen on a summer's evening, ju.s-t before a sto:rm, you will hear the wailings of the young maidens who were sacrificed to a woman's vrunity. They whisper a ;prayer for them and utter a curse for Ambeta Bathorioka. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 43 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have a goodly number of Slqvak residents, that is, citizens whose ethnic background is Slovak. The study of Slovak - for itself and as a preparation for the study of other Slovanic languages - should be given serious consideration by our educators. And Slovak parochial schools should place the study of Slovak on their curriculums. We suggest that the children be taught at least four years (5-8 grades), though the study can be offered earlier. Books are available. And teachers would have little difficulty in learning and presenting the subject. Interested? Write to: Philip A. Hrobak, Jednota Printery, Middletown, Pa . • • • Castles of Slovakia: CACHTICE By Hubert Maciko, 0.1S.B. We know that the history of Castle Cachtice begins with the 14th century because in a dooument, dated in 1319, there is mention of a certain Thomas Rufus as the administrator of Cachtice. In the year 13·92, King Zigmund gruve the fortress to Ctilbor "for faithful and generous services rendered.." What these services were we do not know, but we suppose they were of a military nature. The same document states that if Ct.i/b.or should die without children, the fortress automatically is to be inherited by hi.s two brothers, Nicholas and Andrew. In the same document it was stated that the fortress must be sold only to a fellow countryman, never to a stranger. Ctiibor died in 1414, and the fortress was inherited by his ,son, Ctibor n, who was at that time high- commissioner otf Nitra. In 1430 Ctibor II was a captain in the ami:y of King Zigmund which fought against the Czech Hussites. He died rather suddenly shortly after, and, not leaving a male descendant, the fortress was claimed by King Zigmund. OObor's daughter, Kathryn, inherited the fortress Beo'kov. 44 SLOVAKIA In 1436, King Zigmund gave Cachtice to the provincial txeasurer, Michael Orsagh, whose family held the fortress until 1567. The last of the Orsaghs was Christopher. During this period the Hussite leader Svehla was a prisoner in the fortress; he was later put to death in Kostelany. In 1569 King Maximilian rented the fortress for 50,000 Gold crowns to Ursula Kanifa:j and her son Francis Nadasdy, with the stipulation that in case the fortress would be put 111p for sa,Ie, Francis Nadasdy would have first option to buy. In the year 1602, N adasdy did buy the fortress from king Rudolph II. Nada sdy was the unfortunate husband of the infamous Alzbeta (Elizabeth) Bathoricka. The story of Alz,beta Bathoricka, sordid in every detail, is nevertheless true. It begins on a morning of a beautiful day in May. Alzbeta had many servants, girl servants, who took care of her every whim. She was a proud and haughty woman, but no,t beautiful. A young girl servant, com'bing her mistress's hair, accidentally pulled out a small tuft. Alzbeta became infuriated and struck the girl across the mouth, drawing blood. Few drops of the young girl's blood happened to fall on the uplifted face of the cruel mistress. Looking into the mirror, she imagined that where the drops of blood fell, the skin seemed much smoother and more youthful. Suddenly an insane idea began to germinate in her mind: if the drops of blood did maJke her skin smoother and younger loolking, why not enhance her beauty, by bathing in the blood of young girls? It could be that the blood of young maidens was the long sought for fountain of youth, she thought, and the more she thought rubout it, the stronger her dete:r,mination became to use the blood bath. She needed accomplices, but it was not di'5ficult to enlist the services of some of her serivants for a consiideraJble grant of money and special pri'Vileges. 1 BLOOD OF 600 SLOVAK GffiLS The serwants went out into the neighboring villages and towns and by means fair and foul, by promises and intimidations, brought many young girls to the Castle. The girls ,w ere treated ,very nicely for a time, and then mur- SLOVAKIA 45 dered in the most cruel manner, their blood supplying the "fountain of yO'llth" for the ghou1ish mistress. It 1s said that some 600 young girls were murdered by the mistress of Cachtice. Of course the disruppearance of these girls could not be kept secret forever. Rumors began to circulate, but Bathorio'ka was a mighty lady. She was mistress not only of many thousand acres of land, but mistress of many thousands of lives. She had the power of life or death over her underlings. And so the people under her dared not e~press in words the fears that were in their hearts. They suffered mutely, seeing their daughters disappear one by one. Bathorioka had powerful connections; she was a favorite friend of the Palatine, being invited to the marriage feast af his daughter, Judith. The feast lasted for a whole year. But there was one person who did not fear the infamous woman. He was the parish priest of Cachtice. After dbtaining all the proof he could, he set out for Bratislava, where the court was then in session. The priest had little success at that time, but in the year 1610 the Palatine George Thurzo, due to pressure of public o,pinion, decided to investigate. With two nephews of Bathori cka, Zrinsky and Drugeth respectively, he set out for the fortress, where he learned the bitter truth. Entering the fortress unheralded, he caught Bathoricka in the act olf killing two young maidens. He found other corpses on a manure pile outside the fortress. He oroered the siezure of the castle and put Alzbeta in a dungeon together with her helpers John FickoUjvary, Helen Jo, Kathryn Benicka, and Dorothy Szentes. These last were taken to the Palatine's Castle and condemned to death. On January 7, 1611, the court in Bytca handed down this decree: "We, Theodosius Strmsky of Sul'oiv, the highest magistrate of his Majesty the King, Gaspar Orodoy of Trencin, John David of St. Peter, George Lehotsky, Nicholas Hrabovsky, John Zaturecky, John Borsic'ky, Grubriel Hlinidky, Michael Tusins:ky, Raiphael Kasoivsky, Benedict Kozar, Stephen Marsfovsky, Stephen Alkay, John 1 46 SLOVAKIA MedNedky, all members of thl,s august court, maike public to a1l whom it may concern that we were called together by the Palatine George Thurzo to the city of Bytca this day, January 7, in the year 1611, to sit in judgment over the deeds of John Fidko and the women Helen, Kathryn, and Dorothy, and found the following to be true: Whereas it is known that Palatine George Thurzo has been constituted to guard the persons and the property of those under his care as Palatine of the county of Ora,,va, to punish the guilty and reward the deserving, amd wishing to do his duty, he could not be deaf and blind to the deeds of one AliJbeta Bathoric!ka., the widow of Flrancis Nadasdy, who was an honoraJble man, deserving much from his country, but whose widow committed deeds of tyranny unheard of since the birth of mran!kind, having done away with innumeralble young girls for the pur,pose of bathing in their blood, he, therefore, caused an investigation to be made of the deeds of one Alzbeta Bathorioka, the investigation based on evidence presented against her by the townsipoople. The truth of the accusations were subsequently sulbstantiated by her own servants, accomplices in her many crimes. Hearing of the cruelties, supposedJy committed in the Cachtice Castle; His Highness, Pafatine George Th1ll"IZo, returning from celebrations in Presporok (now Bratisla,,va) in company of the two nephews of Al2Jb.e ta Bathoricka, Nicholas Zrinsky and Juraj Drugeth, and a large following of friends and ~oldiers, unexpectedly visited Cachtice, and at the very entrance to the Castle was confronted by mute evidence in the form of the mutHated bodies of two young girls, prOIVing beyond the shadow of doubt that the rumors aJbout Cachtice were true. Alhta Bathoricka was immediately sentenced to life imprisonment in her own Castle. John Fidko, Helen, Dorothy, and Kathryn we,r e ordered to be tried elsewhere, and if proven guilty, to be given sentences commensurate with the hideousness of their crimes so that others may be deterred from committing the same. The accused confessed, particularly Dorothy, who was SLOVAKIA 47 the chief offender next to her mistre,ss, that they took part in the awful deaths of innocent young girls. The court, finding them guilty imposed the foNowing sentences: Dorothy and Helen shall have their ringers pulled off their hands with burning pincers, then be burned at the staJke. John Ficko, who tOOlk a minor part in the bloody orgies and on account of his ad!vanced age, shall not be tortured, but shall be beheaded and his body burned at the stalke. And since Dorothy and Helen pleaded for Kathryn, and only John F'i.cko witnessed against her, she ~hall be put into prison until such time as her innocence or guilt shall be proven ,b eyond a possible doUJbt. These sentences to be carried out immediately." A~ta BMhorioka was not tried publicly. She was sentenced by George Thurzo to life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Cachtice castle where she died in the year 1614. After her death, the fortress was inherited by her two children, Paul Nadasdy and Kathryn, who was married to Jan Drugeth. A third child, Anna, wife of Nicholas Zrinsky inherited nothing. Paul Nadasdy received the title of Count in the year 1625. After the death of Paul and Anna Nadasdy, the fortress became the property of the many heirs. In the yerur 1703, the fortress was the property of Count Paul Forgaic. In 1707, for reasons not girven, the fortress was besieged by the army of the king and truken. The following year it was wrested from the king by the followers of Francis Rak6czi II. The fortress commanded a beautiful view of the Povazie and Zahorie area. Hrad Cachtice is classed among the larger fortresses of SloJVakia; it had two large towers and three courts. It has been uninhabita:ble since the beginning of the 18th ceI11tury. The people of the vicinity give the old ruins a wide berth. They are superstitious and will bless themselves when passing the ruins. They will tell you that if you listen on a summer's evening, ju.s-t before a sto:rm, you will hear the wailings of the young maidens who were sacrificed to a woman's vrunity. They whisper a ;prayer for them and utter a curse for Ambeta Bathorioka.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Castles of Slovakia: Čachtice Description An account of the resource Hubert Macko, O.S.B. Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 43-47 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Macko, Hubert Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 castles name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ce5fa98de66319d31fd8aaa1f6549131.pdf 26df22af09220c5330e97a6ac9b22f8d PDF Text Text 48 SLOVAKIA COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY" Dr. Fraiio Tiso Die-hard coexistentialists in the western world repeatedly call for "Flexibility" in political negotiations with Moscow. Among their number are those who in their naivete sincerely believe it possible, by applying a flexible method of negotiation, to bring about a relaxation of tension between East and West. Among them are also masked Communists who, by the aid of "flexibility," seek to effeot a more rapid capitulation of the West. Oddly enough not one of the two .types of coexistentialists has so far given a concrete example as to just how the West should practice this flexibility wilth respect to the East. Hence it may be interesting to demonstrate "flexibility" as the Communists practice it. Communist tactics operate primarily 1by "mental reservation." I experienced the first typical case of such :tactics in Moscow. During the early summer of 1940, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Comrade Molotov, presented Rumanian Consul Davidescu an ultimatum in which Rumania was asked to evacuate and immediately turn over Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After delivering the ultimatum Comrade Molotov consoled the painfully perplexed consul with the following words: "And wihen you have ca,,rried out our demand, the Soviet Union will no longeT interfere in Rumania's domestic affairs." This generous promise was an easy one for Molotov to make. It was not even necessary for the Soviet Union to interfere directly in Rumanian domestic affairs since the Rumanian Oommunist Party - on order of Moscow - could do so anyway whenever it liked. Stalin, for example, was frequently asked in writing, mostly by American journalists, such questions as: "Do you believe that the two divergent political, economic and social systems can satisfactorily live side by side?" Stalin's answer was always: "I believe it." At no time, however, has the question been asked: "How long will you continue to believe it?" During the Magyar popular revolt in 1956, an agree- �SLOVAKIA 49 ment was made between Premier Nagy and the Commander-in-Chief of Soviet troops, according to which Soviet forces would move out of Hungary at a certain border point. Premier Nagy, himself a Communist and Communist-educated, failed to have it included in the agreement that other Sovii.et troops would not enter Hungary via a different border point. Wihen, then, the units of the Soviet Army left Budapest only to call a halt some kilometers away, and when in consternation, Nagy inquired as to the cause for this halt, he was told the troops were merely being regrouped. The unhappy premier had forgotten to ask fur what purpose this regrouping was being made. Comrade Khrushchev declared in Peking, immediately after his visit to the United States, that it was wrong to want to force a people. into the Communist camp against its will. That it was wrong "to test ilie stability of the capitalist system by force, since the peoples would never understand and back ilie person who mentally pursues such a tactic." Did Comrade Khrushchev, however, worry about being understood when he was brutally forcing peoples into the Communist sphere? Did he worry about the understanding of the Magyar people? Did he ever solicit the support of the enslaved peoples, among these ihis own Russian people? "Flexibility''. of tactics; tactic of "flexibility" ! The Czech Communists behaved nobly indeed toward the autonomous movement of the Slovaks during the years from 1918 to 1938: they repeatedly emphasized in their news organs that the Slovaks, too, have a right to self-determination and they allowed for this to the day when the Slovaks were separated from Czecho-Slovakia. In April, 1945, they forced Benes to relinquish the national identilty of Slovaks and Czechs, which he had so tenaciously insisted on up to that time, to proclaim the popular independence of the Slovaks and to guarantee to Slovakia the rights of a federal state (the Kosice agreement" of April 1945). As part of :bhe election propaganda of 1946, they presented to the Slovak voters a program which favored the restoration of Slovak independence. When, however, the elections were won not by the Com- �50 SLOVAKIA munists but by the middle class, the Communists began to steer an opposite course. In the new constitution of Czecho-4Slovakia, presented to and accepted by the parliament upon the complete Communist seizure of power in February 1948, they permitted the Slovak provincial government to remain, but with severely curtailed authority. Czedh Communists took over its important administrative dep-artments and the leadership of the Slovak Communist Party. Slovak party leaders were either executed or sentenced to lengthy terms in the penitentiary. Others took !their lives. Key positions in the party press were given to Czechs. Czechs also took over leading jobs in Slovak industry. Inasmuch as these and sim'ilar dispositions on the part of Prague merely served to humble old Slovak Communists and reinforce their opposition to Prague, Comrade Antonin Novotny, first secretary of the Czech Communist Party and the country's president, caused a widespread centralization of the over-all state economic life and the drafting of a new "socialist" constitution. Centraliza!tiion of the economy meant additional sU'bo:ridination of Slovak industry to Czech management. The new basic law, however, was to do away with the provincial or territorial government of Slovakia, which had become almost insignificant. This was .truly a "flexibility" tihat led to the exact opposite of what was demanded so impressively thirty years ago. Flexibility in the tactics of the West? Moscow was able to apply the flexibility, cited above in several examples, not only by dint of Communist morality which says .that that is moral which serves the Party, but also for the reason that Communism has so far been on the offensive. The West, however, is still on the defensive. But a defensive stand, does not offer much of a chance or method of application, for to be "flexible" the West must also convert to a counter-offensive. To advise the vanguard country on the East-West front, the West German Federal Repu·blic, to be fle~ible, while those who do the advising sit and play caros in bunkers that are not even expertly and reliably built, such is not the great art of war, and certainly it is not a form of protection. � 48 SLOVAKIA COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY" Dr. Fraiio Tiso Die-hard coexistentialists in the western world repeatedly call for "Flexibility" in political negotiations with Moscow. Among their number are those who in their naivete sincerely believe it possible, by applying a flexible method of negotiation, to bring about a relaxation of tension between East and West. Among them are also masked Communists who, by the aid of "flexibility," seek to effeot a more rapid capitulation of the West. Oddly enough not one of the two .types of coexistentialists has so far given a concrete example as to just how the West should practice this flexibility wilth respect to the East. Hence it may be interesting to demonstrate "flexibility" as the Communists practice it. Communist tactics operate primarily 1by "mental reservation." I experienced the first typical case of such :tactics in Moscow. During the early summer of 1940, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Comrade Molotov, presented Rumanian Consul Davidescu an ultimatum in which Rumania was asked to evacuate and immediately turn over Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After delivering the ultimatum Comrade Molotov consoled the painfully perplexed consul with the following words: "And wihen you have ca,,rried out our demand, the Soviet Union will no longeT interfere in Rumania's domestic affairs." This generous promise was an easy one for Molotov to make. It was not even necessary for the Soviet Union to interfere directly in Rumanian domestic affairs since the Rumanian Oommunist Party - on order of Moscow - could do so anyway whenever it liked. Stalin, for example, was frequently asked in writing, mostly by American journalists, such questions as: "Do you believe that the two divergent political, economic and social systems can satisfactorily live side by side?" Stalin's answer was always: "I believe it." At no time, however, has the question been asked: "How long will you continue to believe it?" During the Magyar popular revolt in 1956, an agree- �SLOVAKIA 49 ment was made between Premier Nagy and the Commander-in-Chief of Soviet troops, according to which Soviet forces would move out of Hungary at a certain border point. Premier Nagy, himself a Communist and Communist-educated, failed to have it included in the agreement that other Sovii.et troops would not enter Hungary via a different border point. Wihen, then, the units of the Soviet Army left Budapest only to call a halt some kilometers away, and when in consternation, Nagy inquired as to the cause for this halt, he was told the troops were merely being regrouped. The unhappy premier had forgotten to ask fur what purpose this regrouping was being made. Comrade Khrushchev declared in Peking, immediately after his visit to the United States, that it was wrong to want to force a people. into the Communist camp against its will. That it was wrong "to test ilie stability of the capitalist system by force, since the peoples would never understand and back ilie person who mentally pursues such a tactic." Did Comrade Khrushchev, however, worry about being understood when he was brutally forcing peoples into the Communist sphere? Did he worry about the understanding of the Magyar people? Did he ever solicit the support of the enslaved peoples, among these ihis own Russian people? "Flexibility''. of tactics; tactic of "flexibility" ! The Czech Communists behaved nobly indeed toward the autonomous movement of the Slovaks during the years from 1918 to 1938: they repeatedly emphasized in their news organs that the Slovaks, too, have a right to self-determination and they allowed for this to the day when the Slovaks were separated from Czecho-Slovakia. In April, 1945, they forced Benes to relinquish the national identilty of Slovaks and Czechs, which he had so tenaciously insisted on up to that time, to proclaim the popular independence of the Slovaks and to guarantee to Slovakia the rights of a federal state (the Kosice agreement" of April 1945). As part of :bhe election propaganda of 1946, they presented to the Slovak voters a program which favored the restoration of Slovak independence. When, however, the elections were won not by the Com- �50 SLOVAKIA munists but by the middle class, the Communists began to steer an opposite course. In the new constitution of Czecho-4Slovakia, presented to and accepted by the parliament upon the complete Communist seizure of power in February 1948, they permitted the Slovak provincial government to remain, but with severely curtailed authority. Czedh Communists took over its important administrative dep-artments and the leadership of the Slovak Communist Party. Slovak party leaders were either executed or sentenced to lengthy terms in the penitentiary. Others took !their lives. Key positions in the party press were given to Czechs. Czechs also took over leading jobs in Slovak industry. Inasmuch as these and sim'ilar dispositions on the part of Prague merely served to humble old Slovak Communists and reinforce their opposition to Prague, Comrade Antonin Novotny, first secretary of the Czech Communist Party and the country's president, caused a widespread centralization of the over-all state economic life and the drafting of a new "socialist" constitution. Centraliza!tiion of the economy meant additional sU'bo:ridination of Slovak industry to Czech management. The new basic law, however, was to do away with the provincial or territorial government of Slovakia, which had become almost insignificant. This was .truly a "flexibility" tihat led to the exact opposite of what was demanded so impressively thirty years ago. Flexibility in the tactics of the West? Moscow was able to apply the flexibility, cited above in several examples, not only by dint of Communist morality which says .that that is moral which serves the Party, but also for the reason that Communism has so far been on the offensive. The West, however, is still on the defensive. But a defensive stand, does not offer much of a chance or method of application, for to be "flexible" the West must also convert to a counter-offensive. To advise the vanguard country on the East-West front, the West German Federal Repu·blic, to be fle~ible, while those who do the advising sit and play caros in bunkers that are not even expertly and reliably built, such is not the great art of war, and certainly it is not a form of protection. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 48 SLOVAKIA COMMUNIST TACTICAL "FLEXIBILITY" Dr. Fraiio Tiso Die-hard coexistentialists in the western world repeatedly call for "Flexibility" in political negotiations with Moscow. Among their number are those who in their naivete sincerely believe it possible, by applying a flexible method of negotiation, to bring about a relaxation of tension between East and West. Among them are also masked Communists who, by the aid of "flexibility," seek to effeot a more rapid capitulation of the West. Oddly enough not one of the two .types of coexistentialists has so far given a concrete example as to just how the West should practice this flexibility wilth respect to the East. Hence it may be interesting to demonstrate "flexibility" as the Communists practice it. Communist tactics operate primarily 1by "mental reservation." I experienced the first typical case of such :tactics in Moscow. During the early summer of 1940, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Comrade Molotov, presented Rumanian Consul Davidescu an ultimatum in which Rumania was asked to evacuate and immediately turn over Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After delivering the ultimatum Comrade Molotov consoled the painfully perplexed consul with the following words: "And wihen you have ca,,rried out our demand, the Soviet Union will no longeT interfere in Rumania's domestic affairs." This generous promise was an easy one for Molotov to make. It was not even necessary for the Soviet Union to interfere directly in Rumanian domestic affairs since the Rumanian Oommunist Party - on order of Moscow - could do so anyway whenever it liked. Stalin, for example, was frequently asked in writing, mostly by American journalists, such questions as: "Do you believe that the two divergent political, economic and social systems can satisfactorily live side by side?" Stalin's answer was always: "I believe it." At no time, however, has the question been asked: "How long will you continue to believe it?" During the Magyar popular revolt in 1956, an agree- SLOVAKIA 49 ment was made between Premier Nagy and the Commander-in-Chief of Soviet troops, according to which Soviet forces would move out of Hungary at a certain border point. Premier Nagy, himself a Communist and Communist-educated, failed to have it included in the agreement that other Sovii.et troops would not enter Hungary via a different border point. Wihen, then, the units of the Soviet Army left Budapest only to call a halt some kilometers away, and when in consternation, Nagy inquired as to the cause for this halt, he was told the troops were merely being regrouped. The unhappy premier had forgotten to ask fur what purpose this regrouping was being made. Comrade Khrushchev declared in Peking, immediately after his visit to the United States, that it was wrong to want to force a people. into the Communist camp against its will. That it was wrong "to test ilie stability of the capitalist system by force, since the peoples would never understand and back ilie person who mentally pursues such a tactic." Did Comrade Khrushchev, however, worry about being understood when he was brutally forcing peoples into the Communist sphere? Did he worry about the understanding of the Magyar people? Did he ever solicit the support of the enslaved peoples, among these ihis own Russian people? "Flexibility''. of tactics; tactic of "flexibility" ! The Czech Communists behaved nobly indeed toward the autonomous movement of the Slovaks during the years from 1918 to 1938: they repeatedly emphasized in their news organs that the Slovaks, too, have a right to self-determination and they allowed for this to the day when the Slovaks were separated from Czecho-Slovakia. In April, 1945, they forced Benes to relinquish the national identilty of Slovaks and Czechs, which he had so tenaciously insisted on up to that time, to proclaim the popular independence of the Slovaks and to guarantee to Slovakia the rights of a federal state (the Kosice agreement" of April 1945). As part of :bhe election propaganda of 1946, they presented to the Slovak voters a program which favored the restoration of Slovak independence. When, however, the elections were won not by the Com- 50 SLOVAKIA munists but by the middle class, the Communists began to steer an opposite course. In the new constitution of Czecho-4Slovakia, presented to and accepted by the parliament upon the complete Communist seizure of power in February 1948, they permitted the Slovak provincial government to remain, but with severely curtailed authority. Czedh Communists took over its important administrative dep-artments and the leadership of the Slovak Communist Party. Slovak party leaders were either executed or sentenced to lengthy terms in the penitentiary. Others took !their lives. Key positions in the party press were given to Czechs. Czechs also took over leading jobs in Slovak industry. Inasmuch as these and sim'ilar dispositions on the part of Prague merely served to humble old Slovak Communists and reinforce their opposition to Prague, Comrade Antonin Novotny, first secretary of the Czech Communist Party and the country's president, caused a widespread centralization of the over-all state economic life and the drafting of a new "socialist" constitution. Centraliza!tiion of the economy meant additional sU'bo:ridination of Slovak industry to Czech management. The new basic law, however, was to do away with the provincial or territorial government of Slovakia, which had become almost insignificant. This was .truly a "flexibility" tihat led to the exact opposite of what was demanded so impressively thirty years ago. Flexibility in the tactics of the West? Moscow was able to apply the flexibility, cited above in several examples, not only by dint of Communist morality which says .that that is moral which serves the Party, but also for the reason that Communism has so far been on the offensive. The West, however, is still on the defensive. But a defensive stand, does not offer much of a chance or method of application, for to be "flexible" the West must also convert to a counter-offensive. To advise the vanguard country on the East-West front, the West German Federal Repu·blic, to be fle~ible, while those who do the advising sit and play caros in bunkers that are not even expertly and reliably built, such is not the great art of war, and certainly it is not a form of protection.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Communist Tactical "Flexibility" Description An account of the resource Dr. Fraňo Tiso Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 48-50 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tiso, Fraňo Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/44918f3a03f71078ef3b2e89438c90c4.pdf 418822d7fc944d38d9f1423da81e3e62 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 51 MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE F. O. Miksche Before World War I, the interests of the Czech people were represented in the Vienna parliament by powerful political parties with a total of 107 mandates. The Agrarians had 29 seats! the Socialists 23; the so-called Youl'!g Czechs 20; the Catholics 17; the Radicals 10; the Conservatives 7; .the so-cal'led Progressives 1, which was held by T. G. Masaryk, spokesman for the entire Czecih nation in England and other Allied countries during the First World War. His battle-cry "Destroy Austria" was by no means echoed by the other legally eleoted representatives, for in 1917 the Czech parties in the Vienna Assembly all proclaimed their loyalty to the Habsburg Dynasty. What Masaryk had to say about this subject is recorded in his memoirs: "Again and again we were told (in the Allied countries) that the Czech leaders at home were not in opposition to Austria, and the disavowals were soon forgotten. The Russian revolution and the entry of the United States into the war filled mens' minds. The refrain of my propaganda was 'Break up Austria'." Thus Masaryk's lonely voice, strengthened by Allied propaganda, became louder than the united voices of his 106 former colleagues in the Vienna Assem1bly. The Czech politicians demanded the restoration of the Czech State, in federal association witlh the other countries of the Habsburg Crown. Their motives in doing so can certainly not be ascribed to any special love for the Dynasty, but to the necessity for ensuring the national existence and development of the Czech people. It was thought !:'hat if the Habsburg Monarchy were to fall, Bohemia would inevitably become a victim of German or Russian imperialism and lose its Home Rule. Palacky, famous Czech historian, who is always looked upon as the Father of the Czech nation, declared in 1848 that if Austria did not exist, it would have to be invented. All the radical slogans used for agitation could no't hide the fact that the existence of all the small people of the Danubian Empire depended on it, and until the end of the First �52 SLOVAKIA World War Palacky's declaration remained a guide for Czech politicians. Some years earlier even Masaryk expressed the same view, as the following quotation from the program of his party, dated April 14, 1900, shows: "We be1ieve thai the former swer,eiign independence od: our Bohemian Lands is ilffipossiible today. Our smaH numlbers, our geograrphi;cal siltua:tion, and the fac,t th<1t the Czech counrtries are a,lso inhabited by Germans, have compelled us to umte with the other oolt.i:ons and la·nds. " And what did youn,g Benes say iin, his French thesis for a d·octooa.t e, written at Dijon in 1·908? The following is· a quOlbation fr:oon ·has text: "People have od3ten spoken cxf a dismemberunent of Austria. I do not 'believe in it at all. The Mstorical and po1ivi'cal bonds ·bevween the dfflerewt nations of the Emnir.e are too powel'lful to make sueh dhm1emlbermenrt possiib le. . . . ·one cannot seriously think ~ the estaiblishment olf a Czech State iif one-tlhird cxf the inha;b itants of the country (the Sudeten Genma-ns) are d'ertermined to resist and wrn illever accept it lega,Hy. " Break With Tradition Masaryk was the first Czech politician to break with the Palacky tradition, and is consequently often regarded as the betrayer of his testament. Did he perhB!ps imagine that afiter the end of the First World War the danger of Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism would disappear forever? If so, his mistake was catastrophic, for not he but Palacky was in the right. It is dificult to im:agine on what grounds Masaryk switched over after 1914 to an attitude so different from his own past ideas. His views in 1915 were clearly e~ressed in his first note addressed to the British Foreign Office on April 15th of that year: "Now Bohemia wishes and hopes that her Russian brethren will soon succeed in occupying the Bohemian and Slovak districts. . . . They must, however, on no account enter Bohemia except to stay." Prophetic words, expressing a wish which has since been fulfilled. Whatever his reasons, the fact remains thait Masaryk's activities in the Allied countries during the First World War have become a model for many of the exiled politicians of today. With considerable skill and the help of only a few friends he succeeded in enlisting the support of a large part of the Western press for his plans. Several hundreds of thousands of Czechs who had been settled for years in America and other Allied countries �SLOVAKIA 53 took the place of the Czech people at home, on whom he had no influence, and organized demonstrations and passed resolutions by acclamation which were presented to the Allied governments as proof of the will of the people. In Russia, and later also in France and Italy, Czech military formations were organized. Associations were formed and congresses were held to further the program for the "liberation of the oppressed nations," and prominent Allied personalities, invited to play leading parts in them, were so flattered that they did not realize their names were being misused for propaganda purposes by a group of ambitious adve111turers. Closer and closer the nets of intrigue were drawn round the Western statesmen, who were also influenced by the idea that the breeding of national revolutions in the Danubian Empire would shorten the war, and when it ended, in 1918, were unruble to rid themselves of the promises they had so lighft..heartedly given :to exiled politicians, although many of them had foreseen the results of the destruction of the Habsburg Monarchy. No doubt Masaryk's name is graven deeply in the history of all Danubian peoples, for his conspiracies shattered the nucleus of the Danubian Empire - the Union of Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria. It will always remain one of the great questions of history whether the Empire would have fallen asunder spontaneously, or under the influence of foreign propaganda, and there are enough arguments for and against both theories to support neverending discussion. The territorial claims of Italy, Serbia, and Rumania would certainly have deprived it of important provinces, but would not have destroyed its nucleus. The fact is that the Allies officially recognized the CzechoSlovak government while the war was still in progress; and Masaryk took advantage of this circumstance to present his own people with a fait accompli. Instead of having to negotiate with the elected representatives of the peoples the exifod politicians were themselves declared to be legal representatives. The Treaty ·b y means of which the Peace Conference establ1i'shed the new State was entitled: "Traite entre les Puissances Alliees et la Tcheco-Slovaquie," and was signed �54 SLOVAKIA at Saint Germain on September 9, 1919. As soon as Dr. Benes got hold of this document the proper name of the new State as it appeared in the original text - CzechoSlovakia - vanished, and the name Czechoslovakia appeared for the first time. This may appear to be only a small change in nomenclature, but behind it is h1dden one of the gr.e atest bluffs in history. The peoples of the world believe in a nation which has never existed, but was conjured up by trickery and treaohery and maintained by propaganda, for there are no Czechoslovaks, only Czechs and Slovaks. The change in t'he name of the new Republic was inserted into the Constitution by the first Czecho . .Slovak Parliament, whdch was approved on February 20, 1920, but at that time S,loV'akia was occupied by the Czech army, and the leader of the Slovaks, Father Hlinka, was still in a Czech prison at Mirov in Moravia. No Lawful Representatives The "lawful representatives" who voted for the Constitution were anything but lawful, for the members of the first Parliament were not elected but appointed by the political cHque headed by Masaryk, which came to power with the help of the Allies. Over 4.5 million Germans, Hungarians, and people of other nationalities, were without a single representative in this "National Assembly," all claims on their behalf having been ignored by the Czechs. All the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, concerning social reform, the expropriation of land, etc., and the langua:ge to be used officially, were determined by this arbitrarily formed body without a single GermanBohemian or Hungarian voice being heard. To remove all possibility of amendments to the Constitution being approved against the will of the Czechs, it was decreed that a .t wo-thirds majority would be required. After the Constitution had been ratified, the nominated Assembly was dissolved and four weeks later elections were held for a new Parliament. Father Hlinka, elected whlle still in prison, was thereupon released. At the first sitting the Slovak members demanded the implementation of the �SLOVAKIA 55 Pittsburgh Treaty, but were told that it was contrary to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution, and the Treaty was invalid because it was signed by people who were already American citizens. Thus was Czecho-Slovakia created, the "island of democracy in Danubian Europe," and Masaryk, who only a few years before had sharply criticized the smallest injustice in the Vienna Parliament, did not utter a word of protest. From the inception o:f the new Republic a religious antagonism developed between Czechs and Slovaks whicih was of muoh more importance than the national one. The Slovak character has been decisively influenced by Catholicism, while the religious beliefs of the Czechs owe too much to Jan Hus to allow them to become willing subjects to Rome. The founders of Czecho-Slovak,i a, Masaryk and Benes, were free-thinkers, and the numerous quanels in which they soon became involved with the nciglrboring Catholic countries, mainly Hungary, soon brought them up against the Vatican, while no more promising foundation could be found for the national tradition they wished to establish than a return to Hussitism. So a new "National Czechoslovak Church" was founded. Between the two wars, Dr. Benes was one of the leading lights of European diplomacy. He hated Austria and Hungary, feared any sort of federation of the Danubian States, and obst inately upheld the fiction of "Czechoslovak" unity. He conspired with anyone and everyone - Rumanians, Yugoslavs, Russians, and Frenchmen but he never tried to reach an understanding with his immediate neighbors, the Austrians and Hungarians, the most natural thing for him to have done. Czecho-Slovakia's internal situation also became more difficult. The collapse of Masaryk's State in 1939 was inevitable, because the German, Slovak, and Hungarian minorities could not be expected to defend a regime which they regarded as an oppressor. The widespread belief that Czecho-S1ovakia could have survived but for the Munich capitulation i's unfounded, and is only one of the many propaganda legends which have become accepted as fact. It remains to be seen whether the West will continue �56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. � SLOVAKIA 51 MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE F. O. Miksche Before World War I, the interests of the Czech people were represented in the Vienna parliament by powerful political parties with a total of 107 mandates. The Agrarians had 29 seats! the Socialists 23; the so-called Youl'!g Czechs 20; the Catholics 17; the Radicals 10; the Conservatives 7; .the so-cal'led Progressives 1, which was held by T. G. Masaryk, spokesman for the entire Czecih nation in England and other Allied countries during the First World War. His battle-cry "Destroy Austria" was by no means echoed by the other legally eleoted representatives, for in 1917 the Czech parties in the Vienna Assembly all proclaimed their loyalty to the Habsburg Dynasty. What Masaryk had to say about this subject is recorded in his memoirs: "Again and again we were told (in the Allied countries) that the Czech leaders at home were not in opposition to Austria, and the disavowals were soon forgotten. The Russian revolution and the entry of the United States into the war filled mens' minds. The refrain of my propaganda was 'Break up Austria'." Thus Masaryk's lonely voice, strengthened by Allied propaganda, became louder than the united voices of his 106 former colleagues in the Vienna Assem1bly. The Czech politicians demanded the restoration of the Czech State, in federal association witlh the other countries of the Habsburg Crown. Their motives in doing so can certainly not be ascribed to any special love for the Dynasty, but to the necessity for ensuring the national existence and development of the Czech people. It was thought !:'hat if the Habsburg Monarchy were to fall, Bohemia would inevitably become a victim of German or Russian imperialism and lose its Home Rule. Palacky, famous Czech historian, who is always looked upon as the Father of the Czech nation, declared in 1848 that if Austria did not exist, it would have to be invented. All the radical slogans used for agitation could no't hide the fact that the existence of all the small people of the Danubian Empire depended on it, and until the end of the First �52 SLOVAKIA World War Palacky's declaration remained a guide for Czech politicians. Some years earlier even Masaryk expressed the same view, as the following quotation from the program of his party, dated April 14, 1900, shows: "We be1ieve thai the former swer,eiign independence od: our Bohemian Lands is ilffipossiible today. Our smaH numlbers, our geograrphi;cal siltua:tion, and the fac,t th<1t the Czech counrtries are a,lso inhabited by Germans, have compelled us to umte with the other oolt.i:ons and la·nds. " And what did youn,g Benes say iin, his French thesis for a d·octooa.t e, written at Dijon in 1·908? The following is· a quOlbation fr:oon ·has text: "People have od3ten spoken cxf a dismemberunent of Austria. I do not 'believe in it at all. The Mstorical and po1ivi'cal bonds ·bevween the dfflerewt nations of the Emnir.e are too powel'lful to make sueh dhm1emlbermenrt possiib le. . . . ·one cannot seriously think ~ the estaiblishment olf a Czech State iif one-tlhird cxf the inha;b itants of the country (the Sudeten Genma-ns) are d'ertermined to resist and wrn illever accept it lega,Hy. " Break With Tradition Masaryk was the first Czech politician to break with the Palacky tradition, and is consequently often regarded as the betrayer of his testament. Did he perhB!ps imagine that afiter the end of the First World War the danger of Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism would disappear forever? If so, his mistake was catastrophic, for not he but Palacky was in the right. It is dificult to im:agine on what grounds Masaryk switched over after 1914 to an attitude so different from his own past ideas. His views in 1915 were clearly e~ressed in his first note addressed to the British Foreign Office on April 15th of that year: "Now Bohemia wishes and hopes that her Russian brethren will soon succeed in occupying the Bohemian and Slovak districts. . . . They must, however, on no account enter Bohemia except to stay." Prophetic words, expressing a wish which has since been fulfilled. Whatever his reasons, the fact remains thait Masaryk's activities in the Allied countries during the First World War have become a model for many of the exiled politicians of today. With considerable skill and the help of only a few friends he succeeded in enlisting the support of a large part of the Western press for his plans. Several hundreds of thousands of Czechs who had been settled for years in America and other Allied countries �SLOVAKIA 53 took the place of the Czech people at home, on whom he had no influence, and organized demonstrations and passed resolutions by acclamation which were presented to the Allied governments as proof of the will of the people. In Russia, and later also in France and Italy, Czech military formations were organized. Associations were formed and congresses were held to further the program for the "liberation of the oppressed nations," and prominent Allied personalities, invited to play leading parts in them, were so flattered that they did not realize their names were being misused for propaganda purposes by a group of ambitious adve111turers. Closer and closer the nets of intrigue were drawn round the Western statesmen, who were also influenced by the idea that the breeding of national revolutions in the Danubian Empire would shorten the war, and when it ended, in 1918, were unruble to rid themselves of the promises they had so lighft..heartedly given :to exiled politicians, although many of them had foreseen the results of the destruction of the Habsburg Monarchy. No doubt Masaryk's name is graven deeply in the history of all Danubian peoples, for his conspiracies shattered the nucleus of the Danubian Empire - the Union of Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria. It will always remain one of the great questions of history whether the Empire would have fallen asunder spontaneously, or under the influence of foreign propaganda, and there are enough arguments for and against both theories to support neverending discussion. The territorial claims of Italy, Serbia, and Rumania would certainly have deprived it of important provinces, but would not have destroyed its nucleus. The fact is that the Allies officially recognized the CzechoSlovak government while the war was still in progress; and Masaryk took advantage of this circumstance to present his own people with a fait accompli. Instead of having to negotiate with the elected representatives of the peoples the exifod politicians were themselves declared to be legal representatives. The Treaty ·b y means of which the Peace Conference establ1i'shed the new State was entitled: "Traite entre les Puissances Alliees et la Tcheco-Slovaquie," and was signed �54 SLOVAKIA at Saint Germain on September 9, 1919. As soon as Dr. Benes got hold of this document the proper name of the new State as it appeared in the original text - CzechoSlovakia - vanished, and the name Czechoslovakia appeared for the first time. This may appear to be only a small change in nomenclature, but behind it is h1dden one of the gr.e atest bluffs in history. The peoples of the world believe in a nation which has never existed, but was conjured up by trickery and treaohery and maintained by propaganda, for there are no Czechoslovaks, only Czechs and Slovaks. The change in t'he name of the new Republic was inserted into the Constitution by the first Czecho . .Slovak Parliament, whdch was approved on February 20, 1920, but at that time S,loV'akia was occupied by the Czech army, and the leader of the Slovaks, Father Hlinka, was still in a Czech prison at Mirov in Moravia. No Lawful Representatives The "lawful representatives" who voted for the Constitution were anything but lawful, for the members of the first Parliament were not elected but appointed by the political cHque headed by Masaryk, which came to power with the help of the Allies. Over 4.5 million Germans, Hungarians, and people of other nationalities, were without a single representative in this "National Assembly," all claims on their behalf having been ignored by the Czechs. All the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, concerning social reform, the expropriation of land, etc., and the langua:ge to be used officially, were determined by this arbitrarily formed body without a single GermanBohemian or Hungarian voice being heard. To remove all possibility of amendments to the Constitution being approved against the will of the Czechs, it was decreed that a .t wo-thirds majority would be required. After the Constitution had been ratified, the nominated Assembly was dissolved and four weeks later elections were held for a new Parliament. Father Hlinka, elected whlle still in prison, was thereupon released. At the first sitting the Slovak members demanded the implementation of the �SLOVAKIA 55 Pittsburgh Treaty, but were told that it was contrary to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution, and the Treaty was invalid because it was signed by people who were already American citizens. Thus was Czecho-Slovakia created, the "island of democracy in Danubian Europe," and Masaryk, who only a few years before had sharply criticized the smallest injustice in the Vienna Parliament, did not utter a word of protest. From the inception o:f the new Republic a religious antagonism developed between Czechs and Slovaks whicih was of muoh more importance than the national one. The Slovak character has been decisively influenced by Catholicism, while the religious beliefs of the Czechs owe too much to Jan Hus to allow them to become willing subjects to Rome. The founders of Czecho-Slovak,i a, Masaryk and Benes, were free-thinkers, and the numerous quanels in which they soon became involved with the nciglrboring Catholic countries, mainly Hungary, soon brought them up against the Vatican, while no more promising foundation could be found for the national tradition they wished to establish than a return to Hussitism. So a new "National Czechoslovak Church" was founded. Between the two wars, Dr. Benes was one of the leading lights of European diplomacy. He hated Austria and Hungary, feared any sort of federation of the Danubian States, and obst inately upheld the fiction of "Czechoslovak" unity. He conspired with anyone and everyone - Rumanians, Yugoslavs, Russians, and Frenchmen but he never tried to reach an understanding with his immediate neighbors, the Austrians and Hungarians, the most natural thing for him to have done. Czecho-Slovakia's internal situation also became more difficult. The collapse of Masaryk's State in 1939 was inevitable, because the German, Slovak, and Hungarian minorities could not be expected to defend a regime which they regarded as an oppressor. The widespread belief that Czecho-S1ovakia could have survived but for the Munich capitulation i's unfounded, and is only one of the many propaganda legends which have become accepted as fact. It remains to be seen whether the West will continue �56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 51 MASARYK'S ROLE IN CENTRAL EUROPE F. O. Miksche Before World War I, the interests of the Czech people were represented in the Vienna parliament by powerful political parties with a total of 107 mandates. The Agrarians had 29 seats! the Socialists 23; the so-called Youl'!g Czechs 20; the Catholics 17; the Radicals 10; the Conservatives 7; .the so-cal'led Progressives 1, which was held by T. G. Masaryk, spokesman for the entire Czecih nation in England and other Allied countries during the First World War. His battle-cry "Destroy Austria" was by no means echoed by the other legally eleoted representatives, for in 1917 the Czech parties in the Vienna Assembly all proclaimed their loyalty to the Habsburg Dynasty. What Masaryk had to say about this subject is recorded in his memoirs: "Again and again we were told (in the Allied countries) that the Czech leaders at home were not in opposition to Austria, and the disavowals were soon forgotten. The Russian revolution and the entry of the United States into the war filled mens' minds. The refrain of my propaganda was 'Break up Austria'." Thus Masaryk's lonely voice, strengthened by Allied propaganda, became louder than the united voices of his 106 former colleagues in the Vienna Assem1bly. The Czech politicians demanded the restoration of the Czech State, in federal association witlh the other countries of the Habsburg Crown. Their motives in doing so can certainly not be ascribed to any special love for the Dynasty, but to the necessity for ensuring the national existence and development of the Czech people. It was thought !:'hat if the Habsburg Monarchy were to fall, Bohemia would inevitably become a victim of German or Russian imperialism and lose its Home Rule. Palacky, famous Czech historian, who is always looked upon as the Father of the Czech nation, declared in 1848 that if Austria did not exist, it would have to be invented. All the radical slogans used for agitation could no't hide the fact that the existence of all the small people of the Danubian Empire depended on it, and until the end of the First 52 SLOVAKIA World War Palacky's declaration remained a guide for Czech politicians. Some years earlier even Masaryk expressed the same view, as the following quotation from the program of his party, dated April 14, 1900, shows: "We be1ieve thai the former swer,eiign independence od: our Bohemian Lands is ilffipossiible today. Our smaH numlbers, our geograrphi;cal siltua:tion, and the fac,t th<1t the Czech counrtries are a,lso inhabited by Germans, have compelled us to umte with the other oolt.i:ons and la·nds. " And what did youn,g Benes say iin, his French thesis for a d·octooa.t e, written at Dijon in 1·908? The following is· a quOlbation fr:oon ·has text: "People have od3ten spoken cxf a dismemberunent of Austria. I do not 'believe in it at all. The Mstorical and po1ivi'cal bonds ·bevween the dfflerewt nations of the Emnir.e are too powel'lful to make sueh dhm1emlbermenrt possiib le. . . . ·one cannot seriously think ~ the estaiblishment olf a Czech State iif one-tlhird cxf the inha;b itants of the country (the Sudeten Genma-ns) are d'ertermined to resist and wrn illever accept it lega,Hy. " Break With Tradition Masaryk was the first Czech politician to break with the Palacky tradition, and is consequently often regarded as the betrayer of his testament. Did he perhB!ps imagine that afiter the end of the First World War the danger of Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism would disappear forever? If so, his mistake was catastrophic, for not he but Palacky was in the right. It is dificult to im:agine on what grounds Masaryk switched over after 1914 to an attitude so different from his own past ideas. His views in 1915 were clearly e~ressed in his first note addressed to the British Foreign Office on April 15th of that year: "Now Bohemia wishes and hopes that her Russian brethren will soon succeed in occupying the Bohemian and Slovak districts. . . . They must, however, on no account enter Bohemia except to stay." Prophetic words, expressing a wish which has since been fulfilled. Whatever his reasons, the fact remains thait Masaryk's activities in the Allied countries during the First World War have become a model for many of the exiled politicians of today. With considerable skill and the help of only a few friends he succeeded in enlisting the support of a large part of the Western press for his plans. Several hundreds of thousands of Czechs who had been settled for years in America and other Allied countries SLOVAKIA 53 took the place of the Czech people at home, on whom he had no influence, and organized demonstrations and passed resolutions by acclamation which were presented to the Allied governments as proof of the will of the people. In Russia, and later also in France and Italy, Czech military formations were organized. Associations were formed and congresses were held to further the program for the "liberation of the oppressed nations," and prominent Allied personalities, invited to play leading parts in them, were so flattered that they did not realize their names were being misused for propaganda purposes by a group of ambitious adve111turers. Closer and closer the nets of intrigue were drawn round the Western statesmen, who were also influenced by the idea that the breeding of national revolutions in the Danubian Empire would shorten the war, and when it ended, in 1918, were unruble to rid themselves of the promises they had so lighft..heartedly given :to exiled politicians, although many of them had foreseen the results of the destruction of the Habsburg Monarchy. No doubt Masaryk's name is graven deeply in the history of all Danubian peoples, for his conspiracies shattered the nucleus of the Danubian Empire - the Union of Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria. It will always remain one of the great questions of history whether the Empire would have fallen asunder spontaneously, or under the influence of foreign propaganda, and there are enough arguments for and against both theories to support neverending discussion. The territorial claims of Italy, Serbia, and Rumania would certainly have deprived it of important provinces, but would not have destroyed its nucleus. The fact is that the Allies officially recognized the CzechoSlovak government while the war was still in progress; and Masaryk took advantage of this circumstance to present his own people with a fait accompli. Instead of having to negotiate with the elected representatives of the peoples the exifod politicians were themselves declared to be legal representatives. The Treaty ·b y means of which the Peace Conference establ1i'shed the new State was entitled: "Traite entre les Puissances Alliees et la Tcheco-Slovaquie," and was signed 54 SLOVAKIA at Saint Germain on September 9, 1919. As soon as Dr. Benes got hold of this document the proper name of the new State as it appeared in the original text - CzechoSlovakia - vanished, and the name Czechoslovakia appeared for the first time. This may appear to be only a small change in nomenclature, but behind it is h1dden one of the gr.e atest bluffs in history. The peoples of the world believe in a nation which has never existed, but was conjured up by trickery and treaohery and maintained by propaganda, for there are no Czechoslovaks, only Czechs and Slovaks. The change in t'he name of the new Republic was inserted into the Constitution by the first Czecho . .Slovak Parliament, whdch was approved on February 20, 1920, but at that time S,loV'akia was occupied by the Czech army, and the leader of the Slovaks, Father Hlinka, was still in a Czech prison at Mirov in Moravia. No Lawful Representatives The "lawful representatives" who voted for the Constitution were anything but lawful, for the members of the first Parliament were not elected but appointed by the political cHque headed by Masaryk, which came to power with the help of the Allies. Over 4.5 million Germans, Hungarians, and people of other nationalities, were without a single representative in this "National Assembly," all claims on their behalf having been ignored by the Czechs. All the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, concerning social reform, the expropriation of land, etc., and the langua:ge to be used officially, were determined by this arbitrarily formed body without a single GermanBohemian or Hungarian voice being heard. To remove all possibility of amendments to the Constitution being approved against the will of the Czechs, it was decreed that a .t wo-thirds majority would be required. After the Constitution had been ratified, the nominated Assembly was dissolved and four weeks later elections were held for a new Parliament. Father Hlinka, elected whlle still in prison, was thereupon released. At the first sitting the Slovak members demanded the implementation of the SLOVAKIA 55 Pittsburgh Treaty, but were told that it was contrary to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution, and the Treaty was invalid because it was signed by people who were already American citizens. Thus was Czecho-Slovakia created, the "island of democracy in Danubian Europe," and Masaryk, who only a few years before had sharply criticized the smallest injustice in the Vienna Parliament, did not utter a word of protest. From the inception o:f the new Republic a religious antagonism developed between Czechs and Slovaks whicih was of muoh more importance than the national one. The Slovak character has been decisively influenced by Catholicism, while the religious beliefs of the Czechs owe too much to Jan Hus to allow them to become willing subjects to Rome. The founders of Czecho-Slovak,i a, Masaryk and Benes, were free-thinkers, and the numerous quanels in which they soon became involved with the nciglrboring Catholic countries, mainly Hungary, soon brought them up against the Vatican, while no more promising foundation could be found for the national tradition they wished to establish than a return to Hussitism. So a new "National Czechoslovak Church" was founded. Between the two wars, Dr. Benes was one of the leading lights of European diplomacy. He hated Austria and Hungary, feared any sort of federation of the Danubian States, and obst inately upheld the fiction of "Czechoslovak" unity. He conspired with anyone and everyone - Rumanians, Yugoslavs, Russians, and Frenchmen but he never tried to reach an understanding with his immediate neighbors, the Austrians and Hungarians, the most natural thing for him to have done. Czecho-Slovakia's internal situation also became more difficult. The collapse of Masaryk's State in 1939 was inevitable, because the German, Slovak, and Hungarian minorities could not be expected to defend a regime which they regarded as an oppressor. The widespread belief that Czecho-S1ovakia could have survived but for the Munich capitulation i's unfounded, and is only one of the many propaganda legends which have become accepted as fact. It remains to be seen whether the West will continue 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Masaryk’s Role in Central Europe Description An account of the resource F. O. Miksche Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 51-56 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Miksche, Ferdinand Otto, 1905-1992 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3126c8bb6a75e470db2622aa9f6ceb22.pdf 630f44e9a7f41446684d380065bd7854 PDF Text Text 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. �SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground �58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans �SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new � 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. �SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground �58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans �SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground 58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Human Rights and Exiles Description An account of the resource Hans Schütz Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 56-59 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schütz, Hans Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/75da06d3d88b003d707cc28d625565bf.pdf 0d0cc54f7ec9aa3ea7c6d19961a2cf9e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new �SLOVAKIA 60 Czecho-Slovak Republic, which took revenge on the son and his people? Jan Masaryk, son of the "father of the Czechs," foreign minister Wl 1948, committed suicide at the onset of the country's final Bolshevization. At that time the iron curtain rang down on the western and southern borders of the Czech State. 'Dhe border to West Germany and Austria was also closed off for the Czech people. The threads were cut, the contiacts severed. The expression "people's prison" was not coined in vain. The fields in the Czech border areas have been neglected for miles around; the meadows are brown and uncut. Houses and villages have been destroyed, levelled to the ground. Here all that one sees of a former house are a heap of stones; the ruins of a waM tell of a destroyed village or borough. Nowhere does one realize as keenly the deceptiveness of the system, nowhere as here -at the fronJtier does talk of coexistence become such an empty phrase, and the babble about peace and freedom the butt of scornful laughter of an inhuman world . • • • ABOUT THE AUTHORS Frances McPoyne, M.A., Ls a so- and the Slovak v Amerike, the oldciologi-st and researcher, r,e sidin•g 'I est Slovak newspaipe,r in America; in Munich. from 1'950 to the present time, he Dr. Frano Tiso, former ambas- 1is also serving as presid'ent of the sador of the Slovak Re,pwblic to Slo,v ak Lea gue of America. Moscow, is. the chairm~n. of the / Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, forSlovak Na t10naJ Oou_nci,l m Ger- Ianer Chal'lge d'Alfifa.ires of Slovaman~ and the pUlb'hsher of the Ikia in Switzerland and Secre<taryM u n i c ,h "S1obodne Slovensko" 1 GeneraI of the Sloivak People's (Free Sl:ov~kia). Party, teaches at the Universi.fy of F. 0. Miksche, former Czech Montreal, Canada. His· boolk "SloArimy Oolonel and Military a,1:Jtaohe vakia - Nation at the Crossroads i•n, •P aris and• Brussels, is n,o,w a of Centra,l Europe" was pwbli-shed lecturer and free 'Lance writer. Iin 1960 by Rolbert Slpeltler and Hans Schutz, mem1ber of the Sons, New York Gennan Federa,l Parliament, is I Constantine Culen, former memalso co-chairman oif t>he Sudeten I ber of the Slo,v ak ParJiament and Sl-ovalk journalislt, one of ithe most German Oo-uncil in Muniich. Philip A. Hrobak, ediitor of Slo- prolific Slov,a k writers, now revakia, is also editor olf the Jed- sides in Fforida. nota (The Union), the oifificiaJ orKarl Kern, j-ourna.List, is chairgan of th•e First Catholic Slovak man of the Sudeten Association in Unfon, of the UStA. -a nd Can:adia, Ma1mo, Sweden. 1 1 I � SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new �SLOVAKIA 60 Czecho-Slovak Republic, which took revenge on the son and his people? Jan Masaryk, son of the "father of the Czechs," foreign minister Wl 1948, committed suicide at the onset of the country's final Bolshevization. At that time the iron curtain rang down on the western and southern borders of the Czech State. 'Dhe border to West Germany and Austria was also closed off for the Czech people. The threads were cut, the contiacts severed. The expression "people's prison" was not coined in vain. The fields in the Czech border areas have been neglected for miles around; the meadows are brown and uncut. Houses and villages have been destroyed, levelled to the ground. Here all that one sees of a former house are a heap of stones; the ruins of a waM tell of a destroyed village or borough. Nowhere does one realize as keenly the deceptiveness of the system, nowhere as here -at the fronJtier does talk of coexistence become such an empty phrase, and the babble about peace and freedom the butt of scornful laughter of an inhuman world . • • • ABOUT THE AUTHORS Frances McPoyne, M.A., Ls a so- and the Slovak v Amerike, the oldciologi-st and researcher, r,e sidin•g 'I est Slovak newspaipe,r in America; in Munich. from 1'950 to the present time, he Dr. Frano Tiso, former ambas- 1is also serving as presid'ent of the sador of the Slovak Re,pwblic to Slo,v ak Lea gue of America. Moscow, is. the chairm~n. of the / Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, forSlovak Na t10naJ Oou_nci,l m Ger- Ianer Chal'lge d'Alfifa.ires of Slovaman~ and the pUlb'hsher of the Ikia in Switzerland and Secre<taryM u n i c ,h "S1obodne Slovensko" 1 GeneraI of the Sloivak People's (Free Sl:ov~kia). Party, teaches at the Universi.fy of F. 0. Miksche, former Czech Montreal, Canada. His· boolk "SloArimy Oolonel and Military a,1:Jtaohe vakia - Nation at the Crossroads i•n, •P aris and• Brussels, is n,o,w a of Centra,l Europe" was pwbli-shed lecturer and free 'Lance writer. Iin 1960 by Rolbert Slpeltler and Hans Schutz, mem1ber of the Sons, New York Gennan Federa,l Parliament, is I Constantine Culen, former memalso co-chairman oif t>he Sudeten I ber of the Slo,v ak ParJiament and Sl-ovalk journalislt, one of ithe most German Oo-uncil in Muniich. Philip A. Hrobak, ediitor of Slo- prolific Slov,a k writers, now revakia, is also editor olf the Jed- sides in Fforida. nota (The Union), the oifificiaJ orKarl Kern, j-ourna.List, is chairgan of th•e First Catholic Slovak man of the Sudeten Association in Unfon, of the UStA. -a nd Can:adia, Ma1mo, Sweden. 1 1 I � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new SLOVAKIA 60 Czecho-Slovak Republic, which took revenge on the son and his people? Jan Masaryk, son of the "father of the Czechs," foreign minister Wl 1948, committed suicide at the onset of the country's final Bolshevization. At that time the iron curtain rang down on the western and southern borders of the Czech State. 'Dhe border to West Germany and Austria was also closed off for the Czech people. The threads were cut, the contiacts severed. The expression "people's prison" was not coined in vain. The fields in the Czech border areas have been neglected for miles around; the meadows are brown and uncut. Houses and villages have been destroyed, levelled to the ground. Here all that one sees of a former house are a heap of stones; the ruins of a waM tell of a destroyed village or borough. Nowhere does one realize as keenly the deceptiveness of the system, nowhere as here -at the fronJtier does talk of coexistence become such an empty phrase, and the babble about peace and freedom the butt of scornful laughter of an inhuman world . • • • ABOUT THE AUTHORS Frances McPoyne, M.A., Ls a so- and the Slovak v Amerike, the oldciologi-st and researcher, r,e sidin•g 'I est Slovak newspaipe,r in America; in Munich. from 1'950 to the present time, he Dr. Frano Tiso, former ambas- 1is also serving as presid'ent of the sador of the Slovak Re,pwblic to Slo,v ak Lea gue of America. Moscow, is. the chairm~n. of the / Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, forSlovak Na t10naJ Oou_nci,l m Ger- Ianer Chal'lge d'Alfifa.ires of Slovaman~ and the pUlb'hsher of the Ikia in Switzerland and Secre<taryM u n i c ,h "S1obodne Slovensko" 1 GeneraI of the Sloivak People's (Free Sl:ov~kia). Party, teaches at the Universi.fy of F. 0. Miksche, former Czech Montreal, Canada. His· boolk "SloArimy Oolonel and Military a,1:Jtaohe vakia - Nation at the Crossroads i•n, •P aris and• Brussels, is n,o,w a of Centra,l Europe" was pwbli-shed lecturer and free 'Lance writer. Iin 1960 by Rolbert Slpeltler and Hans Schutz, mem1ber of the Sons, New York Gennan Federa,l Parliament, is I Constantine Culen, former memalso co-chairman oif t>he Sudeten I ber of the Slo,v ak ParJiament and Sl-ovalk journalislt, one of ithe most German Oo-uncil in Muniich. Philip A. Hrobak, ediitor of Slo- prolific Slov,a k writers, now revakia, is also editor olf the Jed- sides in Fforida. nota (The Union), the oifificiaJ orKarl Kern, j-ourna.List, is chairgan of th•e First Catholic Slovak man of the Sudeten Association in Unfon, of the UStA. -a nd Can:adia, Ma1mo, Sweden. 1 1 I  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Where All Roads End Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 59-60 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/321b318dc6d9ca4970e908d29371d4cc.pdf f213781653c647dae0bad8c8173be792 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 61 BOOK REVIEWS Slovak Aspirations I order in Central Europe wars were . hb SI ova k.1a, N a- I where two world J . M . K 1rsc: aum: tion •t the Crossroads of Central touched off. Europe. Robert Speller and Sons, 1 "The campaign N. Y., 1960, pp. 371, $5.00. , · C t l Although written to enlighten and correct the warped political vision of those still convinced tha't CzechoSlovakia was a "litlte Switzerland in the heart of Europe," this book may be recommended as a compact political history of Slovakia. Sudeten Germans wili welcome its fair presentation of faots that corroborate their own version of what actually ha:ppened in the CSR. It is amazing that Czech propaganda was, and to a large extent still is, able to influence the thinking of millions of people - particularly the Anglo-Saxon world - to believe a myth that there is one "Czechoslovak" people. Kirschbaum exp'lodes this mylth and traces the origins of Slovakia from its historic beginnings, unfolding before the reader a detailed anti soundly referenced account of a proud, vital and highly cultured people from their earliest origins to the declaration of their independence in 1939, pleading for a new for democracy m en ra an d E ast ern Europe," maintains Kirschbaum "can be successful only if it will not feature people who compromised and collaborated with Communism, but will engage representatives without chauvinistic and imperialistic tendencies who are fighUng for a democraitc order of Central Europe in which every nation will enjoy equality and freedom and which will safeguard its security from outside attacks." The last third of the book is an appendage of documents, including diplomatic memoranda, speeches, reports to the Slovak Parliament, exchanges of telegrams with Hitler and other German Reich officials, 26 photographs, and agreements, resolutions and statements by the representatives of Americans of Slovak descent at conferences of the Slovak League of America, plus remarks by US Congressional leaders on the Slovak prob • lem. A dual leitmotiv throughout is the thesis that Slovakia �62 SLOVAKIA has at all eras of its history been a western-oriented people and has been sought after by other surrounding peoples who attempted, but unsuccessfully, to assimilate it. Today the Slovaks are still western-oriented interiorly and not assimilated, eiither by the Czechs or by the Soviets. Kirsch1baum's book is another reminder and a convincing one, that f.ires are still burning in the hearts of a little people in Central Europe who, like the Irish whom they so strongly resemble, are keeping the faith that independence shall one day be theirs. Though captured by Communists, they have not compromised with them. May Joseph Kirschbaum's meritorious volume win friends for Slovakia and for their cause. - F. McPoyne, in "Sudeten Bulletin," Dec. 1960. B. S. Bue, Ph.D.: Slovak Nationalism; Published by the Slovak L.ague of America, Middletown, Pa., 1960; pp. 67. Scholarly works on Slovakia in English language were, until recently, hard .to find in American and Canadian libraries. Scholars in the field of Slavic studies somehow a voided 'the oldest civilized part of the Slavic world even though Slovakia's role in the early Slavic civilization and in the nineteenth century Pan-Slavism deserved their attention. Since the Second World Wax, lack of interest in things Slovak is gradually disappearing. Whlle some basic works on literature, political and cu]tural history are still to be desired, there is a score of readable and reliable books for the general public as _w ell as for the students of political history and civilization. Professor Buc's recent study on Slovak nationalism is one of the works which will be welcome by s ~udents of Central Eastern European history not only because of its scholarly na/ture but also because it is the first thesis on this subject in the English language. From Seton-Watson to R. A. Kann and Gilbert Oddo, foreign scholars tackled the problem of Slovak nationa. ism, directly or indirectly, some of them, like Macartney for instance, were even very close to understand its origin and aims. There was, however, no serious attempt at presenting the significance of nationalist ideas methodically in Slovak history through the centuries and in various historical situations. �SLOVAKIA Although this reviewer is inclined to call the ideas which stand behind the present Slovak drive for national independence rather patriotism than nationalism, Professor Buc's an a 1 y sis makes it clear that there are many distinctions between na tionalism of some European counltries and the "nationalism" of the Slovaks. "From the beginning of its existence, Slovak nationalism," says Priofessor Bue, "was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call 'Western democracy' ... it involves a loyal devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics." One may add that Slovak nationalism lacks also any tendency to expand or dominate other peoples, aiming merely at a foll national independence of the Slovak people in its own state or in a federal union with other European nations. Professor Bue explains methodically the origins, components, motives, and objectives of Slovak nationalism in the context of a Europear 63 and especially of a Central European politlica'l setting. There were geographical and historical reasons which provoked to life Slovakia's struggle along the lines of nationalistic ideas. Being a part of European modern 'thought, Slovak nationalism was stimulated also by the chauvnism of some of Slovakia's ne<ighbors; its characteristics were, however, for a long time defensive in nature and objective. Speaking of conflicts of Slovak nationalism, the writer gives a picture of the Slovak struggle not only against Hungarian assimilative tendencies, but also of confllicts between Magyarized Slovaks and Slovak Pan-Slavists, and later between Slovak adherents of "Czechoslovakism" and Slovak autonomists, as well .as of Slovak Lutherans versus Slovak Catholics. In a relatively small territory of Slovakia, nationalism became a more complex phenomenon that it would appear to foreign casual observers, although its principal aim remains a struggle for national identity and survival and, continuously, Slovak nationalism was marked by federative tendencies. The chapter on the federative tendencies of Slovak na- �64 SLOVAKIA tionalism is one of the most ins'tructive not only for a proper understanding of the nature of Slovak nationalism, but also for future developments in Central Eastern Europe. Being federative in its tendencies and objectives, Slovak nationalism is a constructive element and not a barrier preventing co-operation of peoples of Eas'tem Europe. In view of the fact that some neighbors of Slovakiia tried to present the Slovak struggle for national independence as an attempt at "balkamization," Professor Buc's analysis gives justice to the facts and to Slovaks. Professor Buc's s t u d y, which originally was prepared • • as a thesis for his Mas!ter Degree in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh follows the developments of Slovak nationaHsm to the very recent events in Slovakia under Communist domination. The work is written in a clear, forceful style, and its conclusions aire based on a thorough knowledge of the subject, with references to a large number of works in several foreign languages. In the biblography, works by Hans Kohn and R. A. Kann are missing, as well as some symposia (Strakhovsky, Lednicki, Gross, etc.). J. M. Kirschbaum, Universite de Montreal. • WHO SAID IT? "The Slo!Wcl{ Leag,ue of America - its affiliated organizations and its indwidual memlbers1hiip - does not hl8Jte the Czech nation, as propagated by members of the Council ( of Free Czechosl.rwaJkia). 'Dhe Slova:ks do not want aniyithing that belongs to the Ozeichs. They do not want their nationaJl or relrigious tra:dibiolns, thei:r history OIi' their J:anguage, and they covet not their lands. They recogndze and respect the rig,ht of the Ozeich nation to full freedom and pdliticaJl independence. Alt the same time, however, and by the same token, they riighrtfrwlly expect the Ozech nation to recognize and respect the inhere.nit right of the Slovak nation to full freedom and imlepem.dence, to a poJiticaJly independent Slovak Retp'lllblk. Flree and 'Czechoslovalk' simply don't rhyme!" - (P. A. Hrcibak, leit:Jter to Hon. Afivin M. Bentley, Juiy 10, 1g53). � SLOVAKIA 61 BOOK REVIEWS Slovak Aspirations I order in Central Europe wars were . hb SI ova k.1a, N a- I where two world J . M . K 1rsc: aum: tion •t the Crossroads of Central touched off. Europe. Robert Speller and Sons, 1 "The campaign N. Y., 1960, pp. 371, $5.00. , · C t l Although written to enlighten and correct the warped political vision of those still convinced tha't CzechoSlovakia was a "litlte Switzerland in the heart of Europe," this book may be recommended as a compact political history of Slovakia. Sudeten Germans wili welcome its fair presentation of faots that corroborate their own version of what actually ha:ppened in the CSR. It is amazing that Czech propaganda was, and to a large extent still is, able to influence the thinking of millions of people - particularly the Anglo-Saxon world - to believe a myth that there is one "Czechoslovak" people. Kirschbaum exp'lodes this mylth and traces the origins of Slovakia from its historic beginnings, unfolding before the reader a detailed anti soundly referenced account of a proud, vital and highly cultured people from their earliest origins to the declaration of their independence in 1939, pleading for a new for democracy m en ra an d E ast ern Europe," maintains Kirschbaum "can be successful only if it will not feature people who compromised and collaborated with Communism, but will engage representatives without chauvinistic and imperialistic tendencies who are fighUng for a democraitc order of Central Europe in which every nation will enjoy equality and freedom and which will safeguard its security from outside attacks." The last third of the book is an appendage of documents, including diplomatic memoranda, speeches, reports to the Slovak Parliament, exchanges of telegrams with Hitler and other German Reich officials, 26 photographs, and agreements, resolutions and statements by the representatives of Americans of Slovak descent at conferences of the Slovak League of America, plus remarks by US Congressional leaders on the Slovak prob • lem. A dual leitmotiv throughout is the thesis that Slovakia �62 SLOVAKIA has at all eras of its history been a western-oriented people and has been sought after by other surrounding peoples who attempted, but unsuccessfully, to assimilate it. Today the Slovaks are still western-oriented interiorly and not assimilated, eiither by the Czechs or by the Soviets. Kirsch1baum's book is another reminder and a convincing one, that f.ires are still burning in the hearts of a little people in Central Europe who, like the Irish whom they so strongly resemble, are keeping the faith that independence shall one day be theirs. Though captured by Communists, they have not compromised with them. May Joseph Kirschbaum's meritorious volume win friends for Slovakia and for their cause. - F. McPoyne, in "Sudeten Bulletin," Dec. 1960. B. S. Bue, Ph.D.: Slovak Nationalism; Published by the Slovak L.ague of America, Middletown, Pa., 1960; pp. 67. Scholarly works on Slovakia in English language were, until recently, hard .to find in American and Canadian libraries. Scholars in the field of Slavic studies somehow a voided 'the oldest civilized part of the Slavic world even though Slovakia's role in the early Slavic civilization and in the nineteenth century Pan-Slavism deserved their attention. Since the Second World Wax, lack of interest in things Slovak is gradually disappearing. Whlle some basic works on literature, political and cu]tural history are still to be desired, there is a score of readable and reliable books for the general public as _w ell as for the students of political history and civilization. Professor Buc's recent study on Slovak nationalism is one of the works which will be welcome by s ~udents of Central Eastern European history not only because of its scholarly na/ture but also because it is the first thesis on this subject in the English language. From Seton-Watson to R. A. Kann and Gilbert Oddo, foreign scholars tackled the problem of Slovak nationa. ism, directly or indirectly, some of them, like Macartney for instance, were even very close to understand its origin and aims. There was, however, no serious attempt at presenting the significance of nationalist ideas methodically in Slovak history through the centuries and in various historical situations. �SLOVAKIA Although this reviewer is inclined to call the ideas which stand behind the present Slovak drive for national independence rather patriotism than nationalism, Professor Buc's an a 1 y sis makes it clear that there are many distinctions between na tionalism of some European counltries and the "nationalism" of the Slovaks. "From the beginning of its existence, Slovak nationalism," says Priofessor Bue, "was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call 'Western democracy' ... it involves a loyal devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics." One may add that Slovak nationalism lacks also any tendency to expand or dominate other peoples, aiming merely at a foll national independence of the Slovak people in its own state or in a federal union with other European nations. Professor Bue explains methodically the origins, components, motives, and objectives of Slovak nationalism in the context of a Europear 63 and especially of a Central European politlica'l setting. There were geographical and historical reasons which provoked to life Slovakia's struggle along the lines of nationalistic ideas. Being a part of European modern 'thought, Slovak nationalism was stimulated also by the chauvnism of some of Slovakia's ne<ighbors; its characteristics were, however, for a long time defensive in nature and objective. Speaking of conflicts of Slovak nationalism, the writer gives a picture of the Slovak struggle not only against Hungarian assimilative tendencies, but also of confllicts between Magyarized Slovaks and Slovak Pan-Slavists, and later between Slovak adherents of "Czechoslovakism" and Slovak autonomists, as well .as of Slovak Lutherans versus Slovak Catholics. In a relatively small territory of Slovakia, nationalism became a more complex phenomenon that it would appear to foreign casual observers, although its principal aim remains a struggle for national identity and survival and, continuously, Slovak nationalism was marked by federative tendencies. The chapter on the federative tendencies of Slovak na- �64 SLOVAKIA tionalism is one of the most ins'tructive not only for a proper understanding of the nature of Slovak nationalism, but also for future developments in Central Eastern Europe. Being federative in its tendencies and objectives, Slovak nationalism is a constructive element and not a barrier preventing co-operation of peoples of Eas'tem Europe. In view of the fact that some neighbors of Slovakiia tried to present the Slovak struggle for national independence as an attempt at "balkamization," Professor Buc's analysis gives justice to the facts and to Slovaks. Professor Buc's s t u d y, which originally was prepared • • as a thesis for his Mas!ter Degree in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh follows the developments of Slovak nationaHsm to the very recent events in Slovakia under Communist domination. The work is written in a clear, forceful style, and its conclusions aire based on a thorough knowledge of the subject, with references to a large number of works in several foreign languages. In the biblography, works by Hans Kohn and R. A. Kann are missing, as well as some symposia (Strakhovsky, Lednicki, Gross, etc.). J. M. Kirschbaum, Universite de Montreal. • WHO SAID IT? "The Slo!Wcl{ Leag,ue of America - its affiliated organizations and its indwidual memlbers1hiip - does not hl8Jte the Czech nation, as propagated by members of the Council ( of Free Czechosl.rwaJkia). 'Dhe Slova:ks do not want aniyithing that belongs to the Ozeichs. They do not want their nationaJl or relrigious tra:dibiolns, thei:r history OIi' their J:anguage, and they covet not their lands. They recogndze and respect the rig,ht of the Ozeich nation to full freedom and pdliticaJl independence. Alt the same time, however, and by the same token, they riighrtfrwlly expect the Ozech nation to recognize and respect the inhere.nit right of the Slovak nation to full freedom and imlepem.dence, to a poJiticaJly independent Slovak Retp'lllblk. Flree and 'Czechoslovalk' simply don't rhyme!" - (P. A. Hrcibak, leit:Jter to Hon. Afivin M. Bentley, Juiy 10, 1g53). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 61 BOOK REVIEWS Slovak Aspirations I order in Central Europe wars were . hb SI ova k.1a, N a- I where two world J . M . K 1rsc: aum: tion •t the Crossroads of Central touched off. Europe. Robert Speller and Sons, 1 "The campaign N. Y., 1960, pp. 371, $5.00. , · C t l Although written to enlighten and correct the warped political vision of those still convinced tha't CzechoSlovakia was a "litlte Switzerland in the heart of Europe," this book may be recommended as a compact political history of Slovakia. Sudeten Germans wili welcome its fair presentation of faots that corroborate their own version of what actually ha:ppened in the CSR. It is amazing that Czech propaganda was, and to a large extent still is, able to influence the thinking of millions of people - particularly the Anglo-Saxon world - to believe a myth that there is one "Czechoslovak" people. Kirschbaum exp'lodes this mylth and traces the origins of Slovakia from its historic beginnings, unfolding before the reader a detailed anti soundly referenced account of a proud, vital and highly cultured people from their earliest origins to the declaration of their independence in 1939, pleading for a new for democracy m en ra an d E ast ern Europe," maintains Kirschbaum "can be successful only if it will not feature people who compromised and collaborated with Communism, but will engage representatives without chauvinistic and imperialistic tendencies who are fighUng for a democraitc order of Central Europe in which every nation will enjoy equality and freedom and which will safeguard its security from outside attacks." The last third of the book is an appendage of documents, including diplomatic memoranda, speeches, reports to the Slovak Parliament, exchanges of telegrams with Hitler and other German Reich officials, 26 photographs, and agreements, resolutions and statements by the representatives of Americans of Slovak descent at conferences of the Slovak League of America, plus remarks by US Congressional leaders on the Slovak prob • lem. A dual leitmotiv throughout is the thesis that Slovakia 62 SLOVAKIA has at all eras of its history been a western-oriented people and has been sought after by other surrounding peoples who attempted, but unsuccessfully, to assimilate it. Today the Slovaks are still western-oriented interiorly and not assimilated, eiither by the Czechs or by the Soviets. Kirsch1baum's book is another reminder and a convincing one, that f.ires are still burning in the hearts of a little people in Central Europe who, like the Irish whom they so strongly resemble, are keeping the faith that independence shall one day be theirs. Though captured by Communists, they have not compromised with them. May Joseph Kirschbaum's meritorious volume win friends for Slovakia and for their cause. - F. McPoyne, in "Sudeten Bulletin," Dec. 1960. B. S. Bue, Ph.D.: Slovak Nationalism; Published by the Slovak L.ague of America, Middletown, Pa., 1960; pp. 67. Scholarly works on Slovakia in English language were, until recently, hard .to find in American and Canadian libraries. Scholars in the field of Slavic studies somehow a voided 'the oldest civilized part of the Slavic world even though Slovakia's role in the early Slavic civilization and in the nineteenth century Pan-Slavism deserved their attention. Since the Second World Wax, lack of interest in things Slovak is gradually disappearing. Whlle some basic works on literature, political and cu]tural history are still to be desired, there is a score of readable and reliable books for the general public as _w ell as for the students of political history and civilization. Professor Buc's recent study on Slovak nationalism is one of the works which will be welcome by s ~udents of Central Eastern European history not only because of its scholarly na/ture but also because it is the first thesis on this subject in the English language. From Seton-Watson to R. A. Kann and Gilbert Oddo, foreign scholars tackled the problem of Slovak nationa. ism, directly or indirectly, some of them, like Macartney for instance, were even very close to understand its origin and aims. There was, however, no serious attempt at presenting the significance of nationalist ideas methodically in Slovak history through the centuries and in various historical situations. SLOVAKIA Although this reviewer is inclined to call the ideas which stand behind the present Slovak drive for national independence rather patriotism than nationalism, Professor Buc's an a 1 y sis makes it clear that there are many distinctions between na tionalism of some European counltries and the "nationalism" of the Slovaks. "From the beginning of its existence, Slovak nationalism," says Priofessor Bue, "was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call 'Western democracy' ... it involves a loyal devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics." One may add that Slovak nationalism lacks also any tendency to expand or dominate other peoples, aiming merely at a foll national independence of the Slovak people in its own state or in a federal union with other European nations. Professor Bue explains methodically the origins, components, motives, and objectives of Slovak nationalism in the context of a Europear 63 and especially of a Central European politlica'l setting. There were geographical and historical reasons which provoked to life Slovakia's struggle along the lines of nationalistic ideas. Being a part of European modern 'thought, Slovak nationalism was stimulated also by the chauvnism of some of Slovakia's ne<ighbors; its characteristics were, however, for a long time defensive in nature and objective. Speaking of conflicts of Slovak nationalism, the writer gives a picture of the Slovak struggle not only against Hungarian assimilative tendencies, but also of confllicts between Magyarized Slovaks and Slovak Pan-Slavists, and later between Slovak adherents of "Czechoslovakism" and Slovak autonomists, as well .as of Slovak Lutherans versus Slovak Catholics. In a relatively small territory of Slovakia, nationalism became a more complex phenomenon that it would appear to foreign casual observers, although its principal aim remains a struggle for national identity and survival and, continuously, Slovak nationalism was marked by federative tendencies. The chapter on the federative tendencies of Slovak na- 64 SLOVAKIA tionalism is one of the most ins'tructive not only for a proper understanding of the nature of Slovak nationalism, but also for future developments in Central Eastern Europe. Being federative in its tendencies and objectives, Slovak nationalism is a constructive element and not a barrier preventing co-operation of peoples of Eas'tem Europe. In view of the fact that some neighbors of Slovakiia tried to present the Slovak struggle for national independence as an attempt at "balkamization," Professor Buc's analysis gives justice to the facts and to Slovaks. Professor Buc's s t u d y, which originally was prepared • • as a thesis for his Mas!ter Degree in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh follows the developments of Slovak nationaHsm to the very recent events in Slovakia under Communist domination. The work is written in a clear, forceful style, and its conclusions aire based on a thorough knowledge of the subject, with references to a large number of works in several foreign languages. In the biblography, works by Hans Kohn and R. A. Kann are missing, as well as some symposia (Strakhovsky, Lednicki, Gross, etc.). J. M. Kirschbaum, Universite de Montreal. • WHO SAID IT? "The Slo!Wcl{ Leag,ue of America - its affiliated organizations and its indwidual memlbers1hiip - does not hl8Jte the Czech nation, as propagated by members of the Council ( of Free Czechosl.rwaJkia). 'Dhe Slova:ks do not want aniyithing that belongs to the Ozeichs. They do not want their nationaJl or relrigious tra:dibiolns, thei:r history OIi' their J:anguage, and they covet not their lands. They recogndze and respect the rig,ht of the Ozeich nation to full freedom and pdliticaJl independence. Alt the same time, however, and by the same token, they riighrtfrwlly expect the Ozech nation to recognize and respect the inhere.nit right of the Slovak nation to full freedom and imlepem.dence, to a poJiticaJly independent Slovak Retp'lllblk. Flree and 'Czechoslovalk' simply don't rhyme!" - (P. A. Hrcibak, leit:Jter to Hon. Afivin M. Bentley, Juiy 10, 1g53).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32) Description An account of the resource includes book reviews, pp. 61-64 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960