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VOL. XII
MARCH-JUNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
IN TIDS ISSUE:
THE ORilGIN AN1D DEVE1LOPMENT OF THE SLOVAK
LANGUAGE
EXPELLEE,S AND THE EUROPEAN IDIEA
MISCON,CEPTIONS OF AMERICAN S,LAVISTS ON THE
SLOVAK LANGUAGE
DEFENSE ALON,E IS NOT ENOUGH
CZECH GROUPS IN EXILE
EXIT CZiECHO-S1LOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN ~RAGUE
MAJORHY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FRE1E CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
CZ/BCH RE,DS BOOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
BOOK REVIEWS
NEWS ITE!MS: 17, 24, 49, 64, 67, 80
•
•
•
Edited and compiled by
PHILIP A . HROBAK
SLOV _AKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown. Pa •
•
•
•
Pwblished by
THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA
�RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00.
SLOVAKIA - NATION AT THE CRiOSS!ROADS OF CENTRAL
EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00.
THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00.
THE SLOVA.KS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00.
SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper);
$2.00 (cloth cover).
THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50.
SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50.
"CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c.
lJNIOONQUERABLES, Pauco; $2.00
UUDOVlT 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, hard
struggle for freedom and independence.
$1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. -
$2.00 elsewhere.
SLOVAKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown, Pa.
Prm ted in the U. S. A.
JEDNOTA PRESS
Middletown, Pa.
�
VOL. XII
MARCH-JUNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
IN TIDS ISSUE:
THE ORilGIN AN1D DEVE1LOPMENT OF THE SLOVAK
LANGUAGE
EXPELLEE,S AND THE EUROPEAN IDIEA
MISCON,CEPTIONS OF AMERICAN S,LAVISTS ON THE
SLOVAK LANGUAGE
DEFENSE ALON,E IS NOT ENOUGH
CZECH GROUPS IN EXILE
EXIT CZiECHO-S1LOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN ~RAGUE
MAJORHY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FRE1E CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
CZ/BCH RE,DS BOOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
BOOK REVIEWS
NEWS ITE!MS: 17, 24, 49, 64, 67, 80
•
•
•
Edited and compiled by
PHILIP A . HROBAK
SLOV _AKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown. Pa •
•
•
•
Pwblished by
THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA
�RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00.
SLOVAKIA - NATION AT THE CRiOSS!ROADS OF CENTRAL
EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00.
THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00.
THE SLOVA.KS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00.
SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper);
$2.00 (cloth cover).
THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50.
SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50.
"CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c.
lJNIOONQUERABLES, Pauco; $2.00
UUDOVlT 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, hard
struggle for freedom and independence.
$1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. -
$2.00 elsewhere.
SLOVAKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown, Pa.
Prm ted in the U. S. A.
JEDNOTA PRESS
Middletown, Pa.
�
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1962, Vol. 12
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Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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VOL. XII
MARCH-JUNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
IN TIDS ISSUE:
THE ORilGIN AN1D DEVE1LOPMENT OF THE SLOVAK
LANGUAGE
EXPELLEE,S AND THE EUROPEAN IDIEA
MISCON,CEPTIONS OF AMERICAN S,LAVISTS ON THE
SLOVAK LANGUAGE
DEFENSE ALON,E IS NOT ENOUGH
CZECH GROUPS IN EXILE
EXIT CZiECHO-S1LOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN ~RAGUE
MAJORHY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FRE1E CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
CZ/BCH RE,DS BOOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
BOOK REVIEWS
NEWS ITE!MS: 17, 24, 49, 64, 67, 80
•
•
•
Edited and compiled by
PHILIP A . HROBAK
SLOV _AKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown. Pa •
•
•
•
Pwblished by
THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE, Oddo; $6.00.
SLOVAKIA - NATION AT THE CRiOSS!ROADS OF CENTRAL
EUROPE, Kirschbaum; $5.00.
THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00.
THE SLOVA.KS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00.
SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper);
$2.00 (cloth cover).
THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50.
SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50.
"CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c.
lJNIOONQUERABLES, Pauco; $2.00
UUDOVlT 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, hard
struggle for freedom and independence.
$1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. -
$2.00 elsewhere.
SLOVAKIA
P. 0. Box 150
Middletown, Pa.
Prm ted in the U. S. A.
JEDNOTA PRESS
Middletown, Pa.
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Title
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Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
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SLOVA!{.IA
Published by th• Slovak League of America
VOL. XII
MARiCH-JilJNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Dr. Jolin Rekem
Slovakia, the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia, is today only a small territory, measuring 18,859 square miles.
It is inha1bited prevailingly by the Slovak nation, a compact, independent national g11oup which belongs to the
Indo-European race and to the large Slovanic family of
people-s.
The Slovak nation at this writing numbers a littlle
over four million people within the confines of Slovakia.
There are over two million in the United States, about a
million in Hungary, some 400,000 in the Czech lands of
Czecho.:Slovakia, and numerous minorities in other countries (France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada, England, Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Australia).
Because one of the most diacritical marks of an "independent nation" is its language, separating or distinguishing one nation from the rest of the sociall groups
forming nations, it may be edifying to review briefly the
historical development of the Slovak language as a manifestation of the ethnic individuality of the Slovak nation.
THE ORIGIN OF SLOVAK CHRISTIAN CULWRE
The ancient Slovaks - penetrating into the territory
of the Danubian Basin sporadically from the second century to the fifth, and thereafter in greater numlbers were exposed to various cultural influences. In the first
place it was the influence of the Christian religion, Christian culture. Christianity came to Slovakia not only from
Germany (the archbishoprics of Regensburg, Passau and
Sa1lzburg) but also from northern Italy (1). It came to them
�2
SLOVAKIA
from the people who could not speak the language of the
Slovaks. The great impetus to Christianity in Slovakia
came from Byzantium with the advent of the apostles SS.
Cyril and Methodius in 863. The advent of these two saintly brothers meant a fundamental break-through in the history of Slovak culture and the history of the Slovak nation in general. They brought the foundation of Slovak
ecclesiastical literature to the territory of the Danubian
"Slovieni" - the forefathers of present-day Slovaks - to
whom the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialect was more intelligible than Ger man.
1. The origin of Slovak ecclesiastical literature is dir ectly connected with the Slovak state of Great Moravia
inasmuch St. Cyril (Constantine) tackled the problem of
,c omposing the Slovak alphabet .when he was given the
task of going to Rastislav's principality among the Danubian "Slovieni" with ~the expressed purpose of preaching
the Gospel in their language. Therefore, the impulse to
write the first Slovak books and to compose the Glagolithic alphabet was given by a Slovak ruler.
2. SS. Cyril and Methodius continued in their creative
work of the Slovak ecclesiastical language after their advent in Slovakia {2).
3. In the work of translating and writing, SS. Cyril
and Methodius were aided by their Slovak pupils, especially by the group under Bishop Gorazd ,(3) .
4. The Slovak people accepted the Slovak ecclesiastical tongue as its own, inasmuch this literary language differed only dialectically from the related language which
they spoke at that time. The gigantic strides made by
Christianity in Slovakia after the advent of S,S. Cyril and
Methodius is proof of this, as are also the numerous monasteries which sprang up in Slovakia from the 9th to the
13th centuries.
5. The Slovak ecclesiastical language was recognized
as the language of the Danubian Slovaks by foreign countries (4).
6. When Popes Adrian II and John VII deigned to
a:pprove the Slovak language as the language of sacred
�SLOVAKIA
3
liturgy in the land of the Slovaks ,(5), they placed it on
the same level with the other liturgical languages of that
time (Hebrew, Greek, Latin). In effect, they made them
cultural'ly independent and secured for them spiritual freedom and thereby equating the eastern elements with the
western, Byzantium with Rome, organically assimilating
them. Indeed, they roused and strengthened the feeling of
nationa'l individuality and awakened appropriate awareness which is necessary for cultural aggression (6). This
then was supplemented also with the independent Slovak
ecclesiastical organization which included the entire ethnic
territory of the Slovaks in Pannonia, Slovakia, and Moravia. With the influence of this independent organization,
the Slovaks also had political independence.
For these six reasons the Slovak nation and its historians regard the language of the liturgy of SS. Cyril and
Methodius as a part of history of Slovak literature and an
organic part of the general history of the Slovak nation.
The correctness of the evaluation of this historical
fact is further confirmed by these reasons:
1. In the Cyrilo-Methodian memoirs connected with
Great Moravia there are found, even if isolatedly, distinct
and lexical Slovakisms (7).
2. The Cyrillic literary and ecclesiastical tradition remained alive in Slovakia even after Latinization took over,
when the Latin culture and alphabet came to prevail in Slovak literary history (8).
LATIN OVER SLOVAK
With the introduction of the Latin liturgy, which
took place in the 13th century, a cultural switch resulted.
The Slovak cultural basis yielded to the Latin. Latin became the language not only of the liturgy and science, but
also became the medium of communication of all public
life in Hungary. The higher and lesser nobility used it in
political and social life. Slovakia had a large number of
the lesser nobility, the "zemani." They, too, adopted Latin
as the means of communication. The languages of the individual nationalities were pushed to the background, even
�4
SLOVAKIA
though we cannot say that they were completely ousted
from public life. Slovak, Iike Magyar and the rest of the
languages of the peoples of Hungary, continued to be the
means of communications of the masses, and the people
continued to use it to create their popular compositions.
In 1460, for example, we find songs composed in the Slovak vernacular afbout "Michael Szilagyi and Vaclav Had'mazi" {9) •.A1so various songs and many legends a'bout good
King Mathias who was a special friend of the living language of the people, because he was brought up in their
environment.
When the Polish clan of the Jagellos came to the Hungarian and Bohemian thrones, we again see that the Slovak language came to use in the court. Literary memoria:ls
of King Vladislav II show linguistic traces of all the Slavonic nations over which he ruled. The letter he wrote to
the people of Bratislava in 1492 contains traces of the
Slovak, Polish and Czech languages {10). When it came to
the spoken word in the Hungarian Assembly, the King
was careful to adapt himself linguistically to the Slovaks
who at that time, culturally and politically, still formed
the nucleus of the Hungarian State. On February 9, 1492,
Vladislav opened the Hungarian Assembly in Budin using
the Slovak language. His speech was then translated into
Magyar by Bishop Valentine of Varadin (11').
The years of the 11th to the 15th century were very
trying years for the land of the Slovaks. Just when the Slovak element had ~most completely assimilated the wild Magyar hordes, the Cumans, relatives of the Magyars, tore into Slovakia in the 12th century and devastated the central
Danube territory. Also in the 12th century, Slovakia was invaded and pillaged by the Tatars. And during the reign of
Andrew II (1205-1235), the crusading armies, marching
through Slovakia, did not spare S'lovakia and its inhabitants
either.
The struggle of various dynasties and noblemen fur the
throne of Hungary in those years (Matthew Cak on the side
of Vaclav against Charles Robert of the House of Anjou),
and then the wild Czech Hussite invasions, were not favor-
�SLOVAKIA
5
able for cultural development. Nevertheless, Gothic culture,
which bloomed in the 14th and 15th centuries in Slovakia,
let its rich memorials not only in buildings and other creations, but also in the verba•l art. It is unfortunate that domestic struggles for the throne, the Turkish wars, and the
stormy re'belllions of the malcontents in the 17th century destroyed most of these precious architectural and literary acquisitions ('12).
From the literary creation of the stirring 13th-16th
centuries we nevertheless have the remnants of three kinds
of literary memorials:
1. The compositions or letters written by the Slovaks
in various Slovak dialects.
2. The literary items of Czech immigrants who settled
in Slovakia and wrote in Czech which includes Slovakisms.
3. The correspondence of Czechs to Czechs in Slovakia, or to Slovaks in the Czech language {13)
Historians of Czech literature, failing to make a distinction between these letters and documents, include them
in the category of Slovak literature, and inasmuch as some
of them were written in Czech, they attempted to prove
that Slovak literature is really only a branch of Czech
literature, because, they said, the Slovaks at first wrote
in Czech and only later "separatists" - such as Bernolak
and Stur - caused a rupture from Czech literature.
Qui bene distinguit, bene docet - et, vice versa, qui
male distinguit, male docet. And this saying applies even in
the question of the literary language in Slovakia before
the time of Bernolak. Therefore, we must clearly distinguish between the three types of literary exipression above.
The first group rightfully belongs in Slovak literature and Slovak history. Even though linguistically, especially considering the etymological side, many of these
written memorials are written in the Slovak western dialect which resembles the Czech in many respects, they are
nevertheless Slovak literary memorials (remembrances)
because the western dialect forms a part of the Slovak
language as much as do the dialects of central and eastern
�6
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia. They differ from the Czech in the omission of the
soft "R" which is characteristic of the Czech language.
The second and third groups of written letters belong
to Slovak literature only if we consider them in the wider
meaning of the word, that is, as a collection of literary
memorials that were written in Slovakia regardless of the
language medium used. If, however, we consider it in the
narrower sense, then these two groups, since they were
not written in Slovak, rather belong to the literature of
Czech emigrants. Never, however, can they be considered
as proof against the existence of an independent Slovak
language, because along with them and independent of
them are proofs of independent Slovak creations. This is
true not only in regard to the dialect of western Slovakia,
which the Czechs like to confuse with the Czech tongue (14),
but also in regard to the dialects of central Slovakia, Zvolen, Hont, etc. (15) . Officially, liturgical books of the Roman Catholic Church, inasmuch as they used the national
language, already then were oriented directly toward the
central dialect e16).
Contemporary writers and those who used the western
dialect regarded it as the Slovak language. Thus, for example, the productive Protestant preacher Daniel Sinapius Horcicka called his Latin-Slovak dictionary "Neoforum latino-slovenicum"; in 1678, Peter Hrabovsky published his "Manuale Latino-hungarico-slavonicum" in Bardejov; in 162, Peter Benicky wrote his "Verse slovenske
P etra Benickeho" (The Slovak verses of Peter Benicky);
Daniel Krman (1663-1740), the Lutheran superintendent,
used the Czech ot the Kralice Bible for liturgical functions ,
but outside of that cultivated Slovak as is attested to by
his work "Rudimenta grammaticae Slavonicae in gratiam
Slovaciorum concinnara."
While these grammarians used the western dialect of
the Slovak language, the eminent Slovak scholar Mathias
Belius (Funtik was his family name) at that time indicated that the central dialect was the genuine tongue of
the Slovaks, praising it highly {17
It is necessary, too, to mention something about the
1
) .
�SLOVAKIA
7
record books of the various guilds which f1lourished in every
Slovak town. The activities of these guilds (minutes of
meetings, activities and regulations, etc.), where they are
not written in Latin, are recorded in Slovak in the dialect
of the respective guilds. Thus, for example, the guild records of Varin, which I made a personal study of, nowhere contain the typical letter of the Czech language,
the soft "f," but phonetically mark the spoken Slovak
words of that time (18). The same may be said of the guild
records of Prievidza (19), and of Trencin ( 20) with their ancient complex orthography. However, the record books of
Skalica - inasmuch as Skalica is located on the border
of Slovakia and Moravia and was inhaibited by Czech guildmasters - Czech influences are in evidence: where the
Master of the guild was a Czech, the Skalica books are
written in Czech; where the Master was a Slovak, the entries were in the western Slovak dialect without the typical
Czech letter "f" (21).
THE SLOVAK OF THE JESUITS
The thing that moved the soul of the Slovak people the effort to participate in the cultural life of the world
in its own spirit, in its own tongue, and on its own stand
- found expression particularly in the efforts of the graduates of the Catholic University of Trnava. This university, founded in 1635 by Archbishop Peter Pazmany
in Trnava, the cultural center of western Slovakia, was directed by the Jesuit Fathers. The University of Trnava
soon became the cultural center for all of Hungary, but
its influence was felt particularly in the Slovak-inhabited
parts of the country.
The university print shop, in the residence of Canon
M. Telegdy, developed into what at that time was considered a gigantic enterprise and it meant the enrichment
of the spirituality of all Hungary and of an its nations.
Here also Slovak literature was multiplied. It was here
that the Slovak lesson books, later dictionaries and religious Slovak writings began to be published. The language
of these literary works was the western Slovak dialect
�8
SLOVAKIA
which was not lexicographically uniform, with shades of
the individual western dialects, but it differed from the
Czech most typical expressions which are peculiar only to
the Czechs and which no Slovak dialect possesses; and the
absence of the Cz,ech "r" is plainly evident. Into this western Slovak dialect, which we call "Jesuit Slovak" to differentiate it from the western Slovak dialect which was
grammatically codified by Bernolak, more and more forms
of the central Slovak dialect gradually penetrated.
Thus, for example, in the book of the Senator from
Zilina, convert Nicholas Tamasi which was published in
1691 and titled "Prava katolicka rucni knizka" (A True
Catholic Manual), we find the words "stiastny, krestjansky," etc., which expressly are central Slovakian forms
of present-day literary Slovak, differing from the Czech
corresponding forms "kfesfansky, stestny."
Besides this, the book "Rituale Strigoniense," published by the Trnava Jesuits in 1715, is written in such
beautiful form of the central Slovak dialect that it differs orthographically only to a very little extent from the
Slovak which we find in the "Rituale Slovacchiae" which
was published in the last decade.
The Slovak of the Jesuits - as written and then
spoken in plays presented by th~ Jesuits - even though
from the beginning not uniform and regulated by rigid
orthographical rules, nevertheless is the Slovak language,
because the lexicon and the etymology of this language
place it in the category of the Slovak language. What is
more, the authors of it regard themselves as Slovaks and
claim Slovak as their language, expressly distinguishing
themselves from other Slovanic nations, even from the
Czechs (22).
The attempt of Jesuit S'lovak to grammatically unify
the language of the Slovaks was made before Bernolak's
time, as will be demonstrated shortly, but it was not perfected until Bernolak, the Catholic priest, with his "Dissertatio philologico-critica de literis Slavorum" (published
in Bratislava in 1787), united the Slovak linguistic and national effort on the basis of his orthography.
�SLOVAKIA
9
THE SALUTAR Y INFLUEN CE OF JESUIT CULTURE
The Catholic University of Trnava, directed by the Jesuits, left indelible traces in the artistic life of Slovakia.
We must credit the Jesuits for the fact that dramatic
plays were staged not only in Latin, but also in the Slovak language. The students of the Jesuit colleges presented
plays for the people, with a religious or secular theme, in
Slovak. They presented a Slovak play in Bratislava already
in 1628, and in the Spisske Podhradie in 1648. The actors
of Trnava presented Slovak plays in many towns (Skalica,
Levoca, Trencin, etc.). They dis-played their talents in Bratislava in the presence of the emperor himself, who expressed himself very favorably about their performanc e (23).
The epochal significanc e of the Jesuit lovers of Slovak linguistic art rests in their collection of religious
hymns, which they published. In Slovakia, church singing
in the language of the people flourished from the oldest
times, when ancient Slovak was recognized as one of the
few languages of liturgy. The hymn "Hospodine pomiluj
ny" comes to us from the tenth century (24). It was followed by many others. Evidence of this is found in the
introductio n to the ''Cantus Catholici" ( written in the
Spisska Kapitu1a on July 22, 1655, and published by the:
University of Trnava), where it is noted that, besides the
custom in some churches of rendering the Canon of the
Holy Mass in the language of the people, the custom of
the choir singing the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo in the language of the people still obtains in all the Slovak churches
of Pannonia (25).
So that irrelevant hymns in the vernacular might not
find their way into the sa,c red liturgy, ecclesiastic al synods
from the earliest times issued rules and regulations pertaining to appropriate church hymns. Thus, in 1114, the
Synod of Ostrihom (Estergom) ordered that only the
hymns approved by the Synod should be sung in the
churches. Similarly the Synod of Nitra, in 1494, ordered
the daily reading of the Holy Mass with the singing of
hymns in all churches under its jurisdiction in order to
bind the people more intimately with the divine service.
�10
SLOVAKIA
Furthermore, in 1560, the Synod very emphatically commands the people to sing only those hymns in their churches
for which there is proof that they had been used a hundred
years before in the Catholic churches, or which were approved by the ecclesiastical authority. In 1629, the Trnava
Synod directed all priests to see to it that the cantors, who
teach singing of church hymns in the schoo[s, use only the
hymns which are approved by the General Vicar. The Sy-.iod, convened in Trnava, in 1638, sent out experts of church
hymns to collect all hymns which the people sing and present them to the church authority for approval and publication (27:).
The professors of the University of Trnava devoted
themselves to this task. They made a collection of old Slovak church hymns, supplemented them with new ones,
and, finally, B. Szolosi, in 1655, published the collection under the title : "Canthus Catholici. Piesne katolicke a latinske
i slovenske: nove i starodavne." This publication had an
enormous significance, because it was the first published
codification of Slovak church songs. It has enjoyed many
editions.
The Slovak Jesuits continued to collect and to compose church hymns in the language . of the people. Later
they pu'blished a collection titled "Cantiones Catholicae."
Many collections in manuscript of this era (17th-18th
century) are preserved in Slovak monasteries and museums, foremost among them is the extensive work (1783)
of composer Pavlin Bajan, a Slovak Franciscan. In the
19th century more and more church hymnals were published (28).
Worthy of mention, too, is the fact that secular Slovak songs, popular ballads, were also collected during the
16th and 17th centuries. The original manuscripts of many
of these were pla·ced in the building of the Slovak Museum
Association of the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) in
Turciansky Svaty Martin. When the Magyars outlawed
the association, the material which they did not destroy
was transferred to the Magyar National Museum.
Very many of the "Canthus Catholici" hymns were
�11
SLOVAKIA
placed in the latest "Jednotny katolicky spevnik (Unified
Catholic Hymnal), published in 1937, on account of their
poeticaJ and musical beauty and expression. Thus, the
Jesuit cultural and artistic tradition of the 16th century
even today is performing its mission and making its influence felt in Catholic Slovakia (29).
IN CONCLUSION
In its literary creations, the Slovak nation, both spiritually and linguistically, formed an independent linguistic group since the time of church-Slovak literature (the
Great Moravian Empire). The existence of Czech literature
of Protestant emigrants in Slovakia is not proof that the
Slovaks did not have their own literature. When the Slovaks opened their homes hospita bly to the literature of
Czech exiles, this does not mean that they closed their
homes to their own language, to Slovak literary creations.
Unnatural are the literary-historical constructions of some
Czech literary historians who, motivated more by imperialistic desires and political efforts than scientific objectivity, use all means to deny the independence of Slovak
literary creations, denying even the existence of an independent Slovak language before the time of Bernolak (Prazak, Flajshans, Travnicek).
1
In this treatise we have demonstrated that the Slovak people were conscious of their individuality long before Bernolak's time. What is more, there existed also an
independent Slovak literary language as an expression of
this independence. At first this language medium was not
uniform: literary creations were written in the dialects of
the various provinces. Later (16th-17th centuries) came
the codification of western Slovak as the language of literature in the works of the S'lovak Jesuits, referred to as
the Slovak of the Jesuits. A. Bernolak did not cause a
breach or split between the Slovak and Czech languages.
There was nothing to split. Slovak and Czech, as mediums
of expression of two nations, the Slovak nation and the
Czech nation, existed independently from Cyrilo-Methodian
times. This is a historic fact. Before Bernolak's time there
�12
SLOVAKIA
were independent efforts to codify the language of Slovak
literature. Whether the language of Slovak literature was
the dialect of Trnava ("Jesuit Slovak"), or that of upper '
Nitra (Cama1 dulian translation of the Bible), it was always
the language of the Slovaks, as is evidenced by the titles
of dictionaries and grammars of that time (1S lavonicum,
Slavonicae, Slovacciorum, Slovenske, Slovak, Slovensko,
Slavus, Pannonus, etc.). The existence of a uniform "Czechoslovak" language is sheer fiction. It has no historical
foundation and is simply the product of Czech imperialism. This was proved long ago, before the advent of modern Czech literary historians, by J. Kohut, an adherent
of Osvald's literary group who made an extensive study
of thE:' question. Kohut wrote: "From all of this it follows
that Catholic Slovaks (and they always were the vast
majority of the Slovak nation) never wrote in pure Czech
... Slovak Catholics always used Slovak as their literary
medium, being influenced more or less by books which
were published in Czech and which they needed because
of a lack of their own. From the pre ..Bernolakian, that is
the Jesuit, period, our Slovak language appears in books
and in writing, which is more similar to the present manner of writing the older are the sources concerned" (30).
With its discoveries, the new Slovak literary historical school but confirms the truthfulness of Kohut's claim
and finds newer and newer evidences of independent national and linguistic feeling and creativity among the Slovaks. ·
The objectiveless claim of the adversaries of the independent Slovak language, nay, even their claim that their
was no independent Slovak national consciousness before
Bernolak's time, is clearly refuted by the fact that quite
some time before Bernolak's time (1762-1813 ), in 1728,
John Baltazar Magin's (1682-1735) "l\'Iurices ... Sive Apologia . .. " was publish~d in defense of the political rights
of the Slovak nation which formed a component part of
Hungary. This apology, prepared by Magin at the request
of the nobility estates of Trencin, is the highest expression of Slovak national and political self-consciousness and
�SLOVAKIA
13
a defense of the Slovak language which is a symbol or the
characteristic of the Slovak nation. If there were no other
documentation to prove the existence of an independent
Slovak language and Slovak nationalism before the time
of Bernolak, then Magin's "Apologia" would alone be sufficient or adequate. However, the Lord be praised, there
are also other evidences, like the translation of the Holy
Writ into Slovak (1756) before Bernolak's time, as well
as dictionaries, grammars, popular poetic creations, public and private correspondence, etc.
From this it follows that the Slovak nation did use
its own Slovak language as a manifestation of its own individuality and medium of expression and understanding
from the time of the church-Slovak literary memorials (the
Great Moravian Empire). From the most ancient times,
the Slovak language symbolized the Slovak nation and in
the history of the Slovaks these two notions were correlative.
REFERENCES
1. The "Cividalsky evangeliar" contains evidence that the Sfo•
vaks had direct contact with centers of Christian oivilizati-on in
Ital'Y. Con1.pare Jan Sitanislav: "Zo itudia slovanskych osobn,y ch mien
v Evanjeliu cividalskom," Slavia X¥1!1[, 194'7, pp. 871-1!()0, and his
"Slovenski putnici do Talianska koncom VIII. a v IX. storoci,"
Nas Narod, m, 1944', w. 89--96.
2. 'Dhe comipletion of the translation of the Hol'Y Writ on October 26, on the territory of Great Moraivia
3. Jan Stanislav: "Slovanski apoitolovia Cyril a Me,tod a ich
cinnost' vo Vel'komorav·s kej .risi," Sl<Nenska akademia vded a umeni
(SIAV'lJ), Bratislava, 1945; A. A. Banik: "Apostol Gorazd, prvy raz v
dejinach spominany slovensky knaz, spisovatel' a svatec," Kultura,
IX, 1937.
4. 'Pope Hadrian II's letter to the Slovak princes RJa,s tislav, SviitQ1Pluk and Kocel' . . . "in your language ... " .Afso Pope John \l'III's
Bull (880) in which he "legaUy approves and orderu;" the Slovak
scru'pture for the Danwbian Slovieni.
5. Pope John VIEI's Bull "lndustriae tuae" to Sviitopluk.
6. Jofo K. Smalov: "Zastoj kato:lkkej hi,e rarchie v slovensk,o m
narod,nom a kulturnom zivote, v M/ONS SAINCT!I MAIRIDIINlI, Rufomlberok, 1947, p. 60.
7. Smal'ov, op. cit.
8. Evidence of this are the Cyrillian :firagments found in the
old codex of the li!brary of the Spisska Kapitula. See also: Alojz
�14
SLOVAKIA
Mi§kovic's "Spisske Cyrilske ulomky X ~l.•XilU. storocia (I), lch Nale:r:
1929, pp. 80-,81, and Valer pogorielov's "Spisske
Cyrilske ulomky :X:lil.-XIIIII. storocia; ich pOlpis, ro:zJbor a otisk" OJI).
pp. 81"87.
9. Jan Kollar: "Narodne Zpievanky," VoI. 1, pp. 31-32, 45, a,nd
Vol. lil, pp. 7• and following.
10. CzeC'h and '"Czechoslov;ak" hi'Storians violate history when,
without regard to Vladislav Jagiello's origLn, and without re~•ard for
lc-ertaiin common orthographical similarities between Czech and
Polish, they claim these common Polish4Czech forms as Czechism.
The use of "rz" in some documents tn Slovakia in the forim not ,of
"R" but "RZ" is not proof di a Czec'hi-sm, but rather is evidence O'f
Polish, especially w hen the persons using them are of Polish o·r igin.
111. Jan Por,u/bsky: "K stemu Vyrociu t.iterarnej Slovenciny,"
1J945, Obr,ana Press, Scranton, Pa., p. 73.
12. Gillbert L. Oddo: "Slovakia and Its People," Robert Speller
and Sons, Ntew Y-0r,k, 1960, p:p. 27-70.
113. The Hrussite Czechs invaded Sloviakia in the 15th century
for plunder and to fight against the Slovak nolbility, who preferred
a Polish J,a,geiUonian to a Czech on the Hu,n,garian throne.
14. 'llhe ill-<l'aimed Albert Prazak, Flajshans, and others.
1•5. Arn ana'1ysis of these songs from the year 11576 on is in Jan
Porulbsky\s work; op. oit., p. 76.
16. 'Dhe 1560 edition of the Ostrihom (lEstergom) Ritual contains centraVSloviak expressions, which sound very much like the
Slovak ,of today (krst, sob.a§, etc.).
17. Mathias Funtik, (1687Lli7'49), in his work "lnstitutiones Lin•
guae Germanicae et Slavicae in Hunga,ria" (L,evoca, 17,18); "In noth,i,ng is it ,b ehind either the seriousness a,nd ~ra,n deur o'f Spanish,
or the charm and smoothness Olf Fr-ench, or the sulbliimity and force
of English, or the wealth of meaning and emphasis of German, or
the softness and ewphony, of Italy, or, finaHy, the imperious rigor
of Magyar."
18. The guild books uf Varin come from the years 1,668-1714;
some were ,placed in my l~brary, othens i,n the homes O'f individual
guildmasters.
19. Mii!lmlas Misik: "Prievidzke cechy," also his "Mesto Prievidza;" and Jan Poru'bsky, o,p. cit., p. 90.
20. Jlozef Branecky: Zo stareho Trencina," 1928, 1-J!Il[.
21. Jlozef Satek: "Naboienske pomery v Skalici od Reformacie
do Jozefinizmu,'' S:polok sv. Vojtecha (SSV), Tr,n,ava, 1J946 (the Czech
text of the guild book is quoted on p. 188, the Slovak on p. 200).
'Frantisek V. Sasinek: "Cechovne artikule ievcov v Skalici r. 1615",
Sloverusky Letopis m. pp. 31,0.3>14'. livan Houdek: "Cechovnictvo na
Slovensku," Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1943.
22. Ev>en J~ros1av Vlcek, lik,e other Czech literary historians,
incorreic.tly claims that Stefan D:uibnljlcay wrote in Czech and places
his work,s in the Czech ca<tegory. But Dulbnicay, writing in the
western .dialect df Slovaki-a, did not use the typi-cal Czech "R" or
{[I[)", BratislalV'a,
�SLOVAKIA
15
"RZ" i.n bis works. In the Latin foreword Olf bi·s "Eductus coluber
tortuosus" (l 723~, in the letter Off the Bishop af Vrati.slava (Breslau; W;r6claw in Polish), he di:fiferentiates ·b etween the Slovaks and
<nechs (''IBohemi et Slavi"). See Jan Rekem's "Stefan Dubnicay a
jeho doba" (in the chapter titled "Slovanske narodne povedomie v
d1ele St. Dubnicaya"), Trencin, 19412.
23. St. JuroV1Sky: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku."
24. Accord~ng to Skultety, it is necessary to seek the origin, of
this song in Slovakia.
25. Benedikt Szolosi, S.J. (1609-1656), in the introduction to
Cantus Catholici, Trnava, 1655.
26. C. Peterfy: "Sacra Concilia Eccl. R. Cath. in Regno Hungariae celebrata, I, 1,74!1·, p. 60 (ca,p. XIIJW). "Nihil legatur vel cantetur in Ecclesia, nisi q:uod fuer'it in Synodo collaudatum."
'217. Jan Postenyi: "Privet, Jednotny Katolicky Spevnik," Trnava,
SSV, 193'7 .
.28. The "large edition" of the ".Tednotny Kratolicley S'pevnik"
(1937) mentions eight various hymnals which were published, some
Olf which went into several editions.
29. F'or t.he history o.f Slovak spiritual songs of this era, see
Dr. Jan Rlikem's "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo star!ej eschatologickej poezie trencianskeho Povaiia," Celko, Tr-enci,n,, 1~.
30. Literarne Listy, 1891:, pp. 64-66.
LITERATURE
Banik A. A.: "Slovenska rec a jej ... vyvoj", in the Pamatnica (Album) of the Tatran, Brno, 1923; "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho
politicka narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov," in the
Sbornik ~Magazine) LV-0, SSV, Vol. Jilil, No. 1•2, Tr.navia, 1936.
•B obek W.: "Prehl'adne dejiny slov. literatury," Bratislaiva, 1'939.
Botto Jul.: "Slovaci. Vyvin ich narodneho Povedomia," Tore. Sv.
Miar,tin, 11923.
·B ujnak P.: "Hlavne prudy a snahy v literature Slovenskej do L:.
Stura," slovemiska citanka, Praha, 1925.
IBranecky J. : "Zo stareho Trencina," Trencin, 1928.
Bucko V. : "Reformne hnutie v arcibiskupstve ostrihomskom do r.
1564," Bratislava, 1939; "Mikulas Olah a jeho doba," B;r,atislrav-a, 194!0.
Corpusiuris Hungarici, Budae, 1.717·9.
Fejer G.: "Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus et civilis,"
Budae, 1829-1844.
Faith St.: "Slovenski katolicki kazatelia X~lll. storoc:M," Teologica
Catholica Slovaca, Br,a tislava, I, 1941.
IFlajshans V.: "Pisemnictvi ceske," Praha, 1901.
[)iels P.: "Altkirchenslavische Grammatik," Heidellbe:iig, 1, 193~;
][, 1934.
Dorosenko D.: "Slavianskij Svit," Berlin, 19.22.
Dubn-iczaj St.: "Eductus coluber tortuosus," Tyrnaviae, 1.7•23.
�16
SLOVAKIA
Hodza M.: "Ceskoslovensky rozkol," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1920.
iHoudek I.: "Cechovnictvo na Slovensku," Turc. ,Sv. Martin, 1943.
Hrusovsky F.: "Slovenske Dejiny," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1939.
tHuri>an J. M.: "Slovensko a jeho iivot literarny," Siovenske pohl'ady, 11847.
Chaloupecky V.: "Stare Slovensko," Bratislarva, 1!}23,; "Kniha Zilinska,'' Bratislava, 1934'; "Stredoveke listy ze• Slovenska,'' Bratislava--Praha, 1937.
C'hrobak D.: "Rukovat' dejin slov. litera,tury," Prnha-IBratislava, 1932.
!Kacka-J. !Kramoris: "A Short Histo.ry of Slovak Literature," The National News, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1944.
Kirschbaum J.: "Slovak Nation At the Crossroads of Central Eu.rope,"
New York, 1·960.
Kollar J.: "Narodne Zpievanky," I, LI, Budin, 1835.
!Krcmery St.: "Prehl'ad dejin slovenskej literatury a vzdelanosti,"
'1:urc. Sv. Martin, 1921.
I.tepacek C.: "Frantiskani v slovenskej literature pred Bernolakom,"
Kultura, Trna,va, 193'7.
Lesldev A.: "Grammatik der Altbulgarischen Sprache," Heide]berg,
1919.
Jialkulbec J.: "Dej iny lit. c:eske," fil, Praha, 1,93'2.
Jirecek J.: "Rukovet' k dejinam Lit. c:eske," Praha, 1•875.
Jlungman J.: "Histo.rie literatury c:eske," Praha, 18419.
Misik, M.: ''Husiti na Slovenslkiu," Banska Bystriica, 1'9 28; "Prievidza,"
Trnava, 1'944.
Miskovic A.: "Spisske Cyril,ke ulomky x ,11.-XIII. storocia. I. lch NalH,"
m, Bratislava, 1929.
M.islm\'ic A.-Pisut M.: "Dejiny slovenskej literatury,'' Bratislaiva, 1,941.
Miiklosich F.: "Vergleichende Gramma•t ik der Slavischen Sprache, I-IV,"
Heidelberg, 1926.
Oddo Gilbert: "Slovakia and Its People," New York, 1960.
-Osva1d R.: "Literarne Listy," 1891~11894.
P,e trik G.: "Magyar bibliographiaja,'' Buda,pest, 1'888.
P-o gorielov V.: "Spisske cyrilske ulomky, II. lch popis, rozbor a otisk,"
Bratislava, m, 1929.
Porulbslky J.: "K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny," Scranton, Pa.,
19415.
Prazak A.: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenc:iny po dobu Sturovu," Praha,
1922; "Rukovet' dej iny c:eske literatury," Tu\aha, 19211; "Sbornik I. sjezdu slovanskych filologu v Praze 1929," Pr-a ha, 1932;
"Slovenska svojskost','' Bratislava, 1,92'6.
iRekem Jan: "Stefan Dubnicaj a jeho doba," Trencin, 1943; "Z kultur•
nych dejin Trencianskeho Povaiia," Trencin, 1943; "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo s,tarsej eschatologickej poezie," Trencin, 1943; "Bibliografia trencianskych tlac:i a vydani," Trencin, 1194!4.
Rizner U.: "Bibliografi.a pisomnictva slovenskeho," Turc. Sv. Mar~n,
1933'.
Rarpant D.: "K poc:iatkom mad'arizacie," Bratislaiva, 1931; "Mad'ar6nstvo Bernolakovo," Bratislava, 1930.
�17
SLOVAKIA
Sasinek V.: "Slovensky Letopis," I-ll!l!I.
Stanislav J .: "Zo studia slovanskych osobnych mien v Evanjeliu c1v1d,a lskom," Slavia, XVl]l, 1947';"Slovenski put111ici do Talianska koncom VIII . a v IX. storocia," Nas narod, lil, 1'944;"Slovanski apostol'ovia Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi," SAVIU, Bratislava, 1945.
Sa!fari1k P. J .: "Geschichte der slaw. Sprache und Literature," Prag,
1869.
Sabek J.: " Naboienske pomery V Skal ici od .reformacie do jozef inizmu," SSV, 'Jlrnaiva, 1946.
Smalov.JKutniik J.: "Zastoj katolickej hierarchie v slove-nskom na rodnom a kulturnom iivote," Mons Seti Martini, Rufomberok,
1947.
Spirko J .: "Cirkevne dejiny," 'l'urc. Sv. Martin, 1943.
Varsik B.: "Husiti a reformacia na Slovensku do iilinskej synody,"
Brati:slava, 119312; "Nar'o dnostny problem t.rnavskej univerzity,"
Bratislava, 1:9318.
Vlcek J .: "Dejiny literatury slovenskej," Turc. Sv. MiartJin, 192 3; "De jiny litel'atury ceske," Pr,a ha, 1'93 1!
Weiss-Nage'1 Sit.: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku v XVII. a XVIIII.
storoci," in the Album of th,e Trnavia University 163&-177f71,
'l'r,nava, 1'935.
ZeUiger A.: "Egyhazi ir6k csarnoka," Nagysz,ombat, 1893; "Pantheon
1
1
Ty.rnav iense bibliographicam continens recens ionem operum
typis Tyrnaviensibus aa1578-1930 editorum iconibus nonnullis
i llustratum," Tyrnaviae, 1'931.
RED C~ECH eX:perts, including
experts on police and espionage
ma't'ters, arie in Oulba to heip Fidel
Oastro in his fight ag-aii,nst Amer.i.can imperialism, a·ccording to reports. The head of a Cuban delegation, which arrived in Prague
in July of this year, was headed
by A. N. Jliiminez, who wa·s promptly awa,rded 'I1he Order of the
Wlhite Lion, t he highest Czech decoraltion. Raul Castro, attending
the Spartacus Games in J uly, was
also given the award. 'l'he Czech
Reds haive granted Cuba vredits of
$20,000,000 and have undertaken
to build eight factories worth
$3'2,000,000. A<nd to think of it,
the United States was respons1ble
for t he esta'blishmenlt of CzechoSlov-a kia back in 191,8!
1
plied. La&t year 20 were aUowed
to take lllP studies for the priesth ood. The NITRA diocese. in 1960,
lost 15 priests by death, re'tlirement, and "other reasons"; O!llil.y
one priest was ordained in that
year. The 'I1R!NAVtA diocese is
short 240 pniests. In 1961 only
eleven priests were ordained for
the whdle of Slovak'ia. The Czech
Reds of Prague corut'inue their systematic persecution of the Catholic
Ohurich in Slovakia.
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
THE "PRAVDA" of Bratislava
(Sept. 26, 1'9611) tr•a1msl-ated a column by Drew Pearson and pulblis'hed it in Sloviak. It had appeared in the NIEW YORIK MiIRlRO!R
and d'e alt wit·h the "Berliin issue."
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
The Pravda article was tiitled "Cas
THE BRATISLAVA SEMINARY a uda,l osti su proti USA." (Time
was allowed to accept 15 applicants and Events Are Against 11he USA).
even though 80 young men had ap- Obviously it suited the Reds.
�
SLOVA!{.IA
Published by th• Slovak League of America
VOL. XII
MARiCH-JilJNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Dr. Jolin Rekem
Slovakia, the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia, is today only a small territory, measuring 18,859 square miles.
It is inha1bited prevailingly by the Slovak nation, a compact, independent national g11oup which belongs to the
Indo-European race and to the large Slovanic family of
people-s.
The Slovak nation at this writing numbers a littlle
over four million people within the confines of Slovakia.
There are over two million in the United States, about a
million in Hungary, some 400,000 in the Czech lands of
Czecho.:Slovakia, and numerous minorities in other countries (France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada, England, Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Australia).
Because one of the most diacritical marks of an "independent nation" is its language, separating or distinguishing one nation from the rest of the sociall groups
forming nations, it may be edifying to review briefly the
historical development of the Slovak language as a manifestation of the ethnic individuality of the Slovak nation.
THE ORIGIN OF SLOVAK CHRISTIAN CULWRE
The ancient Slovaks - penetrating into the territory
of the Danubian Basin sporadically from the second century to the fifth, and thereafter in greater numlbers were exposed to various cultural influences. In the first
place it was the influence of the Christian religion, Christian culture. Christianity came to Slovakia not only from
Germany (the archbishoprics of Regensburg, Passau and
Sa1lzburg) but also from northern Italy (1). It came to them
�2
SLOVAKIA
from the people who could not speak the language of the
Slovaks. The great impetus to Christianity in Slovakia
came from Byzantium with the advent of the apostles SS.
Cyril and Methodius in 863. The advent of these two saintly brothers meant a fundamental break-through in the history of Slovak culture and the history of the Slovak nation in general. They brought the foundation of Slovak
ecclesiastical literature to the territory of the Danubian
"Slovieni" - the forefathers of present-day Slovaks - to
whom the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialect was more intelligible than Ger man.
1. The origin of Slovak ecclesiastical literature is dir ectly connected with the Slovak state of Great Moravia
inasmuch St. Cyril (Constantine) tackled the problem of
,c omposing the Slovak alphabet .when he was given the
task of going to Rastislav's principality among the Danubian "Slovieni" with ~the expressed purpose of preaching
the Gospel in their language. Therefore, the impulse to
write the first Slovak books and to compose the Glagolithic alphabet was given by a Slovak ruler.
2. SS. Cyril and Methodius continued in their creative
work of the Slovak ecclesiastical language after their advent in Slovakia {2).
3. In the work of translating and writing, SS. Cyril
and Methodius were aided by their Slovak pupils, especially by the group under Bishop Gorazd ,(3) .
4. The Slovak people accepted the Slovak ecclesiastical tongue as its own, inasmuch this literary language differed only dialectically from the related language which
they spoke at that time. The gigantic strides made by
Christianity in Slovakia after the advent of S,S. Cyril and
Methodius is proof of this, as are also the numerous monasteries which sprang up in Slovakia from the 9th to the
13th centuries.
5. The Slovak ecclesiastical language was recognized
as the language of the Danubian Slovaks by foreign countries (4).
6. When Popes Adrian II and John VII deigned to
a:pprove the Slovak language as the language of sacred
�SLOVAKIA
3
liturgy in the land of the Slovaks ,(5), they placed it on
the same level with the other liturgical languages of that
time (Hebrew, Greek, Latin). In effect, they made them
cultural'ly independent and secured for them spiritual freedom and thereby equating the eastern elements with the
western, Byzantium with Rome, organically assimilating
them. Indeed, they roused and strengthened the feeling of
nationa'l individuality and awakened appropriate awareness which is necessary for cultural aggression (6). This
then was supplemented also with the independent Slovak
ecclesiastical organization which included the entire ethnic
territory of the Slovaks in Pannonia, Slovakia, and Moravia. With the influence of this independent organization,
the Slovaks also had political independence.
For these six reasons the Slovak nation and its historians regard the language of the liturgy of SS. Cyril and
Methodius as a part of history of Slovak literature and an
organic part of the general history of the Slovak nation.
The correctness of the evaluation of this historical
fact is further confirmed by these reasons:
1. In the Cyrilo-Methodian memoirs connected with
Great Moravia there are found, even if isolatedly, distinct
and lexical Slovakisms (7).
2. The Cyrillic literary and ecclesiastical tradition remained alive in Slovakia even after Latinization took over,
when the Latin culture and alphabet came to prevail in Slovak literary history (8).
LATIN OVER SLOVAK
With the introduction of the Latin liturgy, which
took place in the 13th century, a cultural switch resulted.
The Slovak cultural basis yielded to the Latin. Latin became the language not only of the liturgy and science, but
also became the medium of communication of all public
life in Hungary. The higher and lesser nobility used it in
political and social life. Slovakia had a large number of
the lesser nobility, the "zemani." They, too, adopted Latin
as the means of communication. The languages of the individual nationalities were pushed to the background, even
�4
SLOVAKIA
though we cannot say that they were completely ousted
from public life. Slovak, Iike Magyar and the rest of the
languages of the peoples of Hungary, continued to be the
means of communications of the masses, and the people
continued to use it to create their popular compositions.
In 1460, for example, we find songs composed in the Slovak vernacular afbout "Michael Szilagyi and Vaclav Had'mazi" {9) •.A1so various songs and many legends a'bout good
King Mathias who was a special friend of the living language of the people, because he was brought up in their
environment.
When the Polish clan of the Jagellos came to the Hungarian and Bohemian thrones, we again see that the Slovak language came to use in the court. Literary memoria:ls
of King Vladislav II show linguistic traces of all the Slavonic nations over which he ruled. The letter he wrote to
the people of Bratislava in 1492 contains traces of the
Slovak, Polish and Czech languages {10). When it came to
the spoken word in the Hungarian Assembly, the King
was careful to adapt himself linguistically to the Slovaks
who at that time, culturally and politically, still formed
the nucleus of the Hungarian State. On February 9, 1492,
Vladislav opened the Hungarian Assembly in Budin using
the Slovak language. His speech was then translated into
Magyar by Bishop Valentine of Varadin (11').
The years of the 11th to the 15th century were very
trying years for the land of the Slovaks. Just when the Slovak element had ~most completely assimilated the wild Magyar hordes, the Cumans, relatives of the Magyars, tore into Slovakia in the 12th century and devastated the central
Danube territory. Also in the 12th century, Slovakia was invaded and pillaged by the Tatars. And during the reign of
Andrew II (1205-1235), the crusading armies, marching
through Slovakia, did not spare S'lovakia and its inhabitants
either.
The struggle of various dynasties and noblemen fur the
throne of Hungary in those years (Matthew Cak on the side
of Vaclav against Charles Robert of the House of Anjou),
and then the wild Czech Hussite invasions, were not favor-
�SLOVAKIA
5
able for cultural development. Nevertheless, Gothic culture,
which bloomed in the 14th and 15th centuries in Slovakia,
let its rich memorials not only in buildings and other creations, but also in the verba•l art. It is unfortunate that domestic struggles for the throne, the Turkish wars, and the
stormy re'belllions of the malcontents in the 17th century destroyed most of these precious architectural and literary acquisitions ('12).
From the literary creation of the stirring 13th-16th
centuries we nevertheless have the remnants of three kinds
of literary memorials:
1. The compositions or letters written by the Slovaks
in various Slovak dialects.
2. The literary items of Czech immigrants who settled
in Slovakia and wrote in Czech which includes Slovakisms.
3. The correspondence of Czechs to Czechs in Slovakia, or to Slovaks in the Czech language {13)
Historians of Czech literature, failing to make a distinction between these letters and documents, include them
in the category of Slovak literature, and inasmuch as some
of them were written in Czech, they attempted to prove
that Slovak literature is really only a branch of Czech
literature, because, they said, the Slovaks at first wrote
in Czech and only later "separatists" - such as Bernolak
and Stur - caused a rupture from Czech literature.
Qui bene distinguit, bene docet - et, vice versa, qui
male distinguit, male docet. And this saying applies even in
the question of the literary language in Slovakia before
the time of Bernolak. Therefore, we must clearly distinguish between the three types of literary exipression above.
The first group rightfully belongs in Slovak literature and Slovak history. Even though linguistically, especially considering the etymological side, many of these
written memorials are written in the Slovak western dialect which resembles the Czech in many respects, they are
nevertheless Slovak literary memorials (remembrances)
because the western dialect forms a part of the Slovak
language as much as do the dialects of central and eastern
�6
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia. They differ from the Czech in the omission of the
soft "R" which is characteristic of the Czech language.
The second and third groups of written letters belong
to Slovak literature only if we consider them in the wider
meaning of the word, that is, as a collection of literary
memorials that were written in Slovakia regardless of the
language medium used. If, however, we consider it in the
narrower sense, then these two groups, since they were
not written in Slovak, rather belong to the literature of
Czech emigrants. Never, however, can they be considered
as proof against the existence of an independent Slovak
language, because along with them and independent of
them are proofs of independent Slovak creations. This is
true not only in regard to the dialect of western Slovakia,
which the Czechs like to confuse with the Czech tongue (14),
but also in regard to the dialects of central Slovakia, Zvolen, Hont, etc. (15) . Officially, liturgical books of the Roman Catholic Church, inasmuch as they used the national
language, already then were oriented directly toward the
central dialect e16).
Contemporary writers and those who used the western
dialect regarded it as the Slovak language. Thus, for example, the productive Protestant preacher Daniel Sinapius Horcicka called his Latin-Slovak dictionary "Neoforum latino-slovenicum"; in 1678, Peter Hrabovsky published his "Manuale Latino-hungarico-slavonicum" in Bardejov; in 162, Peter Benicky wrote his "Verse slovenske
P etra Benickeho" (The Slovak verses of Peter Benicky);
Daniel Krman (1663-1740), the Lutheran superintendent,
used the Czech ot the Kralice Bible for liturgical functions ,
but outside of that cultivated Slovak as is attested to by
his work "Rudimenta grammaticae Slavonicae in gratiam
Slovaciorum concinnara."
While these grammarians used the western dialect of
the Slovak language, the eminent Slovak scholar Mathias
Belius (Funtik was his family name) at that time indicated that the central dialect was the genuine tongue of
the Slovaks, praising it highly {17
It is necessary, too, to mention something about the
1
) .
�SLOVAKIA
7
record books of the various guilds which f1lourished in every
Slovak town. The activities of these guilds (minutes of
meetings, activities and regulations, etc.), where they are
not written in Latin, are recorded in Slovak in the dialect
of the respective guilds. Thus, for example, the guild records of Varin, which I made a personal study of, nowhere contain the typical letter of the Czech language,
the soft "f," but phonetically mark the spoken Slovak
words of that time (18). The same may be said of the guild
records of Prievidza (19), and of Trencin ( 20) with their ancient complex orthography. However, the record books of
Skalica - inasmuch as Skalica is located on the border
of Slovakia and Moravia and was inhaibited by Czech guildmasters - Czech influences are in evidence: where the
Master of the guild was a Czech, the Skalica books are
written in Czech; where the Master was a Slovak, the entries were in the western Slovak dialect without the typical
Czech letter "f" (21).
THE SLOVAK OF THE JESUITS
The thing that moved the soul of the Slovak people the effort to participate in the cultural life of the world
in its own spirit, in its own tongue, and on its own stand
- found expression particularly in the efforts of the graduates of the Catholic University of Trnava. This university, founded in 1635 by Archbishop Peter Pazmany
in Trnava, the cultural center of western Slovakia, was directed by the Jesuit Fathers. The University of Trnava
soon became the cultural center for all of Hungary, but
its influence was felt particularly in the Slovak-inhabited
parts of the country.
The university print shop, in the residence of Canon
M. Telegdy, developed into what at that time was considered a gigantic enterprise and it meant the enrichment
of the spirituality of all Hungary and of an its nations.
Here also Slovak literature was multiplied. It was here
that the Slovak lesson books, later dictionaries and religious Slovak writings began to be published. The language
of these literary works was the western Slovak dialect
�8
SLOVAKIA
which was not lexicographically uniform, with shades of
the individual western dialects, but it differed from the
Czech most typical expressions which are peculiar only to
the Czechs and which no Slovak dialect possesses; and the
absence of the Cz,ech "r" is plainly evident. Into this western Slovak dialect, which we call "Jesuit Slovak" to differentiate it from the western Slovak dialect which was
grammatically codified by Bernolak, more and more forms
of the central Slovak dialect gradually penetrated.
Thus, for example, in the book of the Senator from
Zilina, convert Nicholas Tamasi which was published in
1691 and titled "Prava katolicka rucni knizka" (A True
Catholic Manual), we find the words "stiastny, krestjansky," etc., which expressly are central Slovakian forms
of present-day literary Slovak, differing from the Czech
corresponding forms "kfesfansky, stestny."
Besides this, the book "Rituale Strigoniense," published by the Trnava Jesuits in 1715, is written in such
beautiful form of the central Slovak dialect that it differs orthographically only to a very little extent from the
Slovak which we find in the "Rituale Slovacchiae" which
was published in the last decade.
The Slovak of the Jesuits - as written and then
spoken in plays presented by th~ Jesuits - even though
from the beginning not uniform and regulated by rigid
orthographical rules, nevertheless is the Slovak language,
because the lexicon and the etymology of this language
place it in the category of the Slovak language. What is
more, the authors of it regard themselves as Slovaks and
claim Slovak as their language, expressly distinguishing
themselves from other Slovanic nations, even from the
Czechs (22).
The attempt of Jesuit S'lovak to grammatically unify
the language of the Slovaks was made before Bernolak's
time, as will be demonstrated shortly, but it was not perfected until Bernolak, the Catholic priest, with his "Dissertatio philologico-critica de literis Slavorum" (published
in Bratislava in 1787), united the Slovak linguistic and national effort on the basis of his orthography.
�SLOVAKIA
9
THE SALUTAR Y INFLUEN CE OF JESUIT CULTURE
The Catholic University of Trnava, directed by the Jesuits, left indelible traces in the artistic life of Slovakia.
We must credit the Jesuits for the fact that dramatic
plays were staged not only in Latin, but also in the Slovak language. The students of the Jesuit colleges presented
plays for the people, with a religious or secular theme, in
Slovak. They presented a Slovak play in Bratislava already
in 1628, and in the Spisske Podhradie in 1648. The actors
of Trnava presented Slovak plays in many towns (Skalica,
Levoca, Trencin, etc.). They dis-played their talents in Bratislava in the presence of the emperor himself, who expressed himself very favorably about their performanc e (23).
The epochal significanc e of the Jesuit lovers of Slovak linguistic art rests in their collection of religious
hymns, which they published. In Slovakia, church singing
in the language of the people flourished from the oldest
times, when ancient Slovak was recognized as one of the
few languages of liturgy. The hymn "Hospodine pomiluj
ny" comes to us from the tenth century (24). It was followed by many others. Evidence of this is found in the
introductio n to the ''Cantus Catholici" ( written in the
Spisska Kapitu1a on July 22, 1655, and published by the:
University of Trnava), where it is noted that, besides the
custom in some churches of rendering the Canon of the
Holy Mass in the language of the people, the custom of
the choir singing the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo in the language of the people still obtains in all the Slovak churches
of Pannonia (25).
So that irrelevant hymns in the vernacular might not
find their way into the sa,c red liturgy, ecclesiastic al synods
from the earliest times issued rules and regulations pertaining to appropriate church hymns. Thus, in 1114, the
Synod of Ostrihom (Estergom) ordered that only the
hymns approved by the Synod should be sung in the
churches. Similarly the Synod of Nitra, in 1494, ordered
the daily reading of the Holy Mass with the singing of
hymns in all churches under its jurisdiction in order to
bind the people more intimately with the divine service.
�10
SLOVAKIA
Furthermore, in 1560, the Synod very emphatically commands the people to sing only those hymns in their churches
for which there is proof that they had been used a hundred
years before in the Catholic churches, or which were approved by the ecclesiastical authority. In 1629, the Trnava
Synod directed all priests to see to it that the cantors, who
teach singing of church hymns in the schoo[s, use only the
hymns which are approved by the General Vicar. The Sy-.iod, convened in Trnava, in 1638, sent out experts of church
hymns to collect all hymns which the people sing and present them to the church authority for approval and publication (27:).
The professors of the University of Trnava devoted
themselves to this task. They made a collection of old Slovak church hymns, supplemented them with new ones,
and, finally, B. Szolosi, in 1655, published the collection under the title : "Canthus Catholici. Piesne katolicke a latinske
i slovenske: nove i starodavne." This publication had an
enormous significance, because it was the first published
codification of Slovak church songs. It has enjoyed many
editions.
The Slovak Jesuits continued to collect and to compose church hymns in the language . of the people. Later
they pu'blished a collection titled "Cantiones Catholicae."
Many collections in manuscript of this era (17th-18th
century) are preserved in Slovak monasteries and museums, foremost among them is the extensive work (1783)
of composer Pavlin Bajan, a Slovak Franciscan. In the
19th century more and more church hymnals were published (28).
Worthy of mention, too, is the fact that secular Slovak songs, popular ballads, were also collected during the
16th and 17th centuries. The original manuscripts of many
of these were pla·ced in the building of the Slovak Museum
Association of the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) in
Turciansky Svaty Martin. When the Magyars outlawed
the association, the material which they did not destroy
was transferred to the Magyar National Museum.
Very many of the "Canthus Catholici" hymns were
�11
SLOVAKIA
placed in the latest "Jednotny katolicky spevnik (Unified
Catholic Hymnal), published in 1937, on account of their
poeticaJ and musical beauty and expression. Thus, the
Jesuit cultural and artistic tradition of the 16th century
even today is performing its mission and making its influence felt in Catholic Slovakia (29).
IN CONCLUSION
In its literary creations, the Slovak nation, both spiritually and linguistically, formed an independent linguistic group since the time of church-Slovak literature (the
Great Moravian Empire). The existence of Czech literature
of Protestant emigrants in Slovakia is not proof that the
Slovaks did not have their own literature. When the Slovaks opened their homes hospita bly to the literature of
Czech exiles, this does not mean that they closed their
homes to their own language, to Slovak literary creations.
Unnatural are the literary-historical constructions of some
Czech literary historians who, motivated more by imperialistic desires and political efforts than scientific objectivity, use all means to deny the independence of Slovak
literary creations, denying even the existence of an independent Slovak language before the time of Bernolak (Prazak, Flajshans, Travnicek).
1
In this treatise we have demonstrated that the Slovak people were conscious of their individuality long before Bernolak's time. What is more, there existed also an
independent Slovak literary language as an expression of
this independence. At first this language medium was not
uniform: literary creations were written in the dialects of
the various provinces. Later (16th-17th centuries) came
the codification of western Slovak as the language of literature in the works of the S'lovak Jesuits, referred to as
the Slovak of the Jesuits. A. Bernolak did not cause a
breach or split between the Slovak and Czech languages.
There was nothing to split. Slovak and Czech, as mediums
of expression of two nations, the Slovak nation and the
Czech nation, existed independently from Cyrilo-Methodian
times. This is a historic fact. Before Bernolak's time there
�12
SLOVAKIA
were independent efforts to codify the language of Slovak
literature. Whether the language of Slovak literature was
the dialect of Trnava ("Jesuit Slovak"), or that of upper '
Nitra (Cama1 dulian translation of the Bible), it was always
the language of the Slovaks, as is evidenced by the titles
of dictionaries and grammars of that time (1S lavonicum,
Slavonicae, Slovacciorum, Slovenske, Slovak, Slovensko,
Slavus, Pannonus, etc.). The existence of a uniform "Czechoslovak" language is sheer fiction. It has no historical
foundation and is simply the product of Czech imperialism. This was proved long ago, before the advent of modern Czech literary historians, by J. Kohut, an adherent
of Osvald's literary group who made an extensive study
of thE:' question. Kohut wrote: "From all of this it follows
that Catholic Slovaks (and they always were the vast
majority of the Slovak nation) never wrote in pure Czech
... Slovak Catholics always used Slovak as their literary
medium, being influenced more or less by books which
were published in Czech and which they needed because
of a lack of their own. From the pre ..Bernolakian, that is
the Jesuit, period, our Slovak language appears in books
and in writing, which is more similar to the present manner of writing the older are the sources concerned" (30).
With its discoveries, the new Slovak literary historical school but confirms the truthfulness of Kohut's claim
and finds newer and newer evidences of independent national and linguistic feeling and creativity among the Slovaks. ·
The objectiveless claim of the adversaries of the independent Slovak language, nay, even their claim that their
was no independent Slovak national consciousness before
Bernolak's time, is clearly refuted by the fact that quite
some time before Bernolak's time (1762-1813 ), in 1728,
John Baltazar Magin's (1682-1735) "l\'Iurices ... Sive Apologia . .. " was publish~d in defense of the political rights
of the Slovak nation which formed a component part of
Hungary. This apology, prepared by Magin at the request
of the nobility estates of Trencin, is the highest expression of Slovak national and political self-consciousness and
�SLOVAKIA
13
a defense of the Slovak language which is a symbol or the
characteristic of the Slovak nation. If there were no other
documentation to prove the existence of an independent
Slovak language and Slovak nationalism before the time
of Bernolak, then Magin's "Apologia" would alone be sufficient or adequate. However, the Lord be praised, there
are also other evidences, like the translation of the Holy
Writ into Slovak (1756) before Bernolak's time, as well
as dictionaries, grammars, popular poetic creations, public and private correspondence, etc.
From this it follows that the Slovak nation did use
its own Slovak language as a manifestation of its own individuality and medium of expression and understanding
from the time of the church-Slovak literary memorials (the
Great Moravian Empire). From the most ancient times,
the Slovak language symbolized the Slovak nation and in
the history of the Slovaks these two notions were correlative.
REFERENCES
1. The "Cividalsky evangeliar" contains evidence that the Sfo•
vaks had direct contact with centers of Christian oivilizati-on in
Ital'Y. Con1.pare Jan Sitanislav: "Zo itudia slovanskych osobn,y ch mien
v Evanjeliu cividalskom," Slavia X¥1!1[, 194'7, pp. 871-1!()0, and his
"Slovenski putnici do Talianska koncom VIII. a v IX. storoci,"
Nas Narod, m, 1944', w. 89--96.
2. 'Dhe comipletion of the translation of the Hol'Y Writ on October 26, on the territory of Great Moraivia
3. Jan Stanislav: "Slovanski apoitolovia Cyril a Me,tod a ich
cinnost' vo Vel'komorav·s kej .risi," Sl<Nenska akademia vded a umeni
(SIAV'lJ), Bratislava, 1945; A. A. Banik: "Apostol Gorazd, prvy raz v
dejinach spominany slovensky knaz, spisovatel' a svatec," Kultura,
IX, 1937.
4. 'Pope Hadrian II's letter to the Slovak princes RJa,s tislav, SviitQ1Pluk and Kocel' . . . "in your language ... " .Afso Pope John \l'III's
Bull (880) in which he "legaUy approves and orderu;" the Slovak
scru'pture for the Danwbian Slovieni.
5. Pope John VIEI's Bull "lndustriae tuae" to Sviitopluk.
6. Jofo K. Smalov: "Zastoj kato:lkkej hi,e rarchie v slovensk,o m
narod,nom a kulturnom zivote, v M/ONS SAINCT!I MAIRIDIINlI, Rufomlberok, 1947, p. 60.
7. Smal'ov, op. cit.
8. Evidence of this are the Cyrillian :firagments found in the
old codex of the li!brary of the Spisska Kapitula. See also: Alojz
�14
SLOVAKIA
Mi§kovic's "Spisske Cyrilske ulomky X ~l.•XilU. storocia (I), lch Nale:r:
1929, pp. 80-,81, and Valer pogorielov's "Spisske
Cyrilske ulomky :X:lil.-XIIIII. storocia; ich pOlpis, ro:zJbor a otisk" OJI).
pp. 81"87.
9. Jan Kollar: "Narodne Zpievanky," VoI. 1, pp. 31-32, 45, a,nd
Vol. lil, pp. 7• and following.
10. CzeC'h and '"Czechoslov;ak" hi'Storians violate history when,
without regard to Vladislav Jagiello's origLn, and without re~•ard for
lc-ertaiin common orthographical similarities between Czech and
Polish, they claim these common Polish4Czech forms as Czechism.
The use of "rz" in some documents tn Slovakia in the forim not ,of
"R" but "RZ" is not proof di a Czec'hi-sm, but rather is evidence O'f
Polish, especially w hen the persons using them are of Polish o·r igin.
111. Jan Por,u/bsky: "K stemu Vyrociu t.iterarnej Slovenciny,"
1J945, Obr,ana Press, Scranton, Pa., p. 73.
12. Gillbert L. Oddo: "Slovakia and Its People," Robert Speller
and Sons, Ntew Y-0r,k, 1960, p:p. 27-70.
113. The Hrussite Czechs invaded Sloviakia in the 15th century
for plunder and to fight against the Slovak nolbility, who preferred
a Polish J,a,geiUonian to a Czech on the Hu,n,garian throne.
14. 'llhe ill-<l'aimed Albert Prazak, Flajshans, and others.
1•5. Arn ana'1ysis of these songs from the year 11576 on is in Jan
Porulbsky\s work; op. oit., p. 76.
16. 'Dhe 1560 edition of the Ostrihom (lEstergom) Ritual contains centraVSloviak expressions, which sound very much like the
Slovak ,of today (krst, sob.a§, etc.).
17. Mathias Funtik, (1687Lli7'49), in his work "lnstitutiones Lin•
guae Germanicae et Slavicae in Hunga,ria" (L,evoca, 17,18); "In noth,i,ng is it ,b ehind either the seriousness a,nd ~ra,n deur o'f Spanish,
or the charm and smoothness Olf Fr-ench, or the sulbliimity and force
of English, or the wealth of meaning and emphasis of German, or
the softness and ewphony, of Italy, or, finaHy, the imperious rigor
of Magyar."
18. The guild books uf Varin come from the years 1,668-1714;
some were ,placed in my l~brary, othens i,n the homes O'f individual
guildmasters.
19. Mii!lmlas Misik: "Prievidzke cechy," also his "Mesto Prievidza;" and Jan Poru'bsky, o,p. cit., p. 90.
20. Jlozef Branecky: Zo stareho Trencina," 1928, 1-J!Il[.
21. Jlozef Satek: "Naboienske pomery v Skalici od Reformacie
do Jozefinizmu,'' S:polok sv. Vojtecha (SSV), Tr,n,ava, 1J946 (the Czech
text of the guild book is quoted on p. 188, the Slovak on p. 200).
'Frantisek V. Sasinek: "Cechovne artikule ievcov v Skalici r. 1615",
Sloverusky Letopis m. pp. 31,0.3>14'. livan Houdek: "Cechovnictvo na
Slovensku," Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1943.
22. Ev>en J~ros1av Vlcek, lik,e other Czech literary historians,
incorreic.tly claims that Stefan D:uibnljlcay wrote in Czech and places
his work,s in the Czech ca<tegory. But Dulbnicay, writing in the
western .dialect df Slovaki-a, did not use the typi-cal Czech "R" or
{[I[)", BratislalV'a,
�SLOVAKIA
15
"RZ" i.n bis works. In the Latin foreword Olf bi·s "Eductus coluber
tortuosus" (l 723~, in the letter Off the Bishop af Vrati.slava (Breslau; W;r6claw in Polish), he di:fiferentiates ·b etween the Slovaks and
<nechs (''IBohemi et Slavi"). See Jan Rekem's "Stefan Dubnicay a
jeho doba" (in the chapter titled "Slovanske narodne povedomie v
d1ele St. Dubnicaya"), Trencin, 19412.
23. St. JuroV1Sky: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku."
24. Accord~ng to Skultety, it is necessary to seek the origin, of
this song in Slovakia.
25. Benedikt Szolosi, S.J. (1609-1656), in the introduction to
Cantus Catholici, Trnava, 1655.
26. C. Peterfy: "Sacra Concilia Eccl. R. Cath. in Regno Hungariae celebrata, I, 1,74!1·, p. 60 (ca,p. XIIJW). "Nihil legatur vel cantetur in Ecclesia, nisi q:uod fuer'it in Synodo collaudatum."
'217. Jan Postenyi: "Privet, Jednotny Katolicky Spevnik," Trnava,
SSV, 193'7 .
.28. The "large edition" of the ".Tednotny Kratolicley S'pevnik"
(1937) mentions eight various hymnals which were published, some
Olf which went into several editions.
29. F'or t.he history o.f Slovak spiritual songs of this era, see
Dr. Jan Rlikem's "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo star!ej eschatologickej poezie trencianskeho Povaiia," Celko, Tr-enci,n,, 1~.
30. Literarne Listy, 1891:, pp. 64-66.
LITERATURE
Banik A. A.: "Slovenska rec a jej ... vyvoj", in the Pamatnica (Album) of the Tatran, Brno, 1923; "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho
politicka narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov," in the
Sbornik ~Magazine) LV-0, SSV, Vol. Jilil, No. 1•2, Tr.navia, 1936.
•B obek W.: "Prehl'adne dejiny slov. literatury," Bratislaiva, 1'939.
Botto Jul.: "Slovaci. Vyvin ich narodneho Povedomia," Tore. Sv.
Miar,tin, 11923.
·B ujnak P.: "Hlavne prudy a snahy v literature Slovenskej do L:.
Stura," slovemiska citanka, Praha, 1925.
IBranecky J. : "Zo stareho Trencina," Trencin, 1928.
Bucko V. : "Reformne hnutie v arcibiskupstve ostrihomskom do r.
1564," Bratislava, 1939; "Mikulas Olah a jeho doba," B;r,atislrav-a, 194!0.
Corpusiuris Hungarici, Budae, 1.717·9.
Fejer G.: "Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus et civilis,"
Budae, 1829-1844.
Faith St.: "Slovenski katolicki kazatelia X~lll. storoc:M," Teologica
Catholica Slovaca, Br,a tislava, I, 1941.
IFlajshans V.: "Pisemnictvi ceske," Praha, 1901.
[)iels P.: "Altkirchenslavische Grammatik," Heidellbe:iig, 1, 193~;
][, 1934.
Dorosenko D.: "Slavianskij Svit," Berlin, 19.22.
Dubn-iczaj St.: "Eductus coluber tortuosus," Tyrnaviae, 1.7•23.
�16
SLOVAKIA
Hodza M.: "Ceskoslovensky rozkol," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1920.
iHoudek I.: "Cechovnictvo na Slovensku," Turc. ,Sv. Martin, 1943.
Hrusovsky F.: "Slovenske Dejiny," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1939.
tHuri>an J. M.: "Slovensko a jeho iivot literarny," Siovenske pohl'ady, 11847.
Chaloupecky V.: "Stare Slovensko," Bratislarva, 1!}23,; "Kniha Zilinska,'' Bratislava, 1934'; "Stredoveke listy ze• Slovenska,'' Bratislava--Praha, 1937.
C'hrobak D.: "Rukovat' dejin slov. litera,tury," Prnha-IBratislava, 1932.
!Kacka-J. !Kramoris: "A Short Histo.ry of Slovak Literature," The National News, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1944.
Kirschbaum J.: "Slovak Nation At the Crossroads of Central Eu.rope,"
New York, 1·960.
Kollar J.: "Narodne Zpievanky," I, LI, Budin, 1835.
!Krcmery St.: "Prehl'ad dejin slovenskej literatury a vzdelanosti,"
'1:urc. Sv. Martin, 1921.
I.tepacek C.: "Frantiskani v slovenskej literature pred Bernolakom,"
Kultura, Trna,va, 193'7.
Lesldev A.: "Grammatik der Altbulgarischen Sprache," Heide]berg,
1919.
Jialkulbec J.: "Dej iny lit. c:eske," fil, Praha, 1,93'2.
Jirecek J.: "Rukovet' k dejinam Lit. c:eske," Praha, 1•875.
Jlungman J.: "Histo.rie literatury c:eske," Praha, 18419.
Misik, M.: ''Husiti na Slovenslkiu," Banska Bystriica, 1'9 28; "Prievidza,"
Trnava, 1'944.
Miskovic A.: "Spisske Cyril,ke ulomky x ,11.-XIII. storocia. I. lch NalH,"
m, Bratislava, 1929.
M.islm\'ic A.-Pisut M.: "Dejiny slovenskej literatury,'' Bratislaiva, 1,941.
Miiklosich F.: "Vergleichende Gramma•t ik der Slavischen Sprache, I-IV,"
Heidelberg, 1926.
Oddo Gilbert: "Slovakia and Its People," New York, 1960.
-Osva1d R.: "Literarne Listy," 1891~11894.
P,e trik G.: "Magyar bibliographiaja,'' Buda,pest, 1'888.
P-o gorielov V.: "Spisske cyrilske ulomky, II. lch popis, rozbor a otisk,"
Bratislava, m, 1929.
Porulbslky J.: "K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny," Scranton, Pa.,
19415.
Prazak A.: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenc:iny po dobu Sturovu," Praha,
1922; "Rukovet' dej iny c:eske literatury," Tu\aha, 19211; "Sbornik I. sjezdu slovanskych filologu v Praze 1929," Pr-a ha, 1932;
"Slovenska svojskost','' Bratislava, 1,92'6.
iRekem Jan: "Stefan Dubnicaj a jeho doba," Trencin, 1943; "Z kultur•
nych dejin Trencianskeho Povaiia," Trencin, 1943; "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo s,tarsej eschatologickej poezie," Trencin, 1943; "Bibliografia trencianskych tlac:i a vydani," Trencin, 1194!4.
Rizner U.: "Bibliografi.a pisomnictva slovenskeho," Turc. Sv. Mar~n,
1933'.
Rarpant D.: "K poc:iatkom mad'arizacie," Bratislaiva, 1931; "Mad'ar6nstvo Bernolakovo," Bratislava, 1930.
�17
SLOVAKIA
Sasinek V.: "Slovensky Letopis," I-ll!l!I.
Stanislav J .: "Zo studia slovanskych osobnych mien v Evanjeliu c1v1d,a lskom," Slavia, XVl]l, 1947';"Slovenski put111ici do Talianska koncom VIII . a v IX. storocia," Nas narod, lil, 1'944;"Slovanski apostol'ovia Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi," SAVIU, Bratislava, 1945.
Sa!fari1k P. J .: "Geschichte der slaw. Sprache und Literature," Prag,
1869.
Sabek J.: " Naboienske pomery V Skal ici od .reformacie do jozef inizmu," SSV, 'Jlrnaiva, 1946.
Smalov.JKutniik J.: "Zastoj katolickej hierarchie v slove-nskom na rodnom a kulturnom iivote," Mons Seti Martini, Rufomberok,
1947.
Spirko J .: "Cirkevne dejiny," 'l'urc. Sv. Martin, 1943.
Varsik B.: "Husiti a reformacia na Slovensku do iilinskej synody,"
Brati:slava, 119312; "Nar'o dnostny problem t.rnavskej univerzity,"
Bratislava, 1:9318.
Vlcek J .: "Dejiny literatury slovenskej," Turc. Sv. MiartJin, 192 3; "De jiny litel'atury ceske," Pr,a ha, 1'93 1!
Weiss-Nage'1 Sit.: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku v XVII. a XVIIII.
storoci," in the Album of th,e Trnavia University 163&-177f71,
'l'r,nava, 1'935.
ZeUiger A.: "Egyhazi ir6k csarnoka," Nagysz,ombat, 1893; "Pantheon
1
1
Ty.rnav iense bibliographicam continens recens ionem operum
typis Tyrnaviensibus aa1578-1930 editorum iconibus nonnullis
i llustratum," Tyrnaviae, 1'931.
RED C~ECH eX:perts, including
experts on police and espionage
ma't'ters, arie in Oulba to heip Fidel
Oastro in his fight ag-aii,nst Amer.i.can imperialism, a·ccording to reports. The head of a Cuban delegation, which arrived in Prague
in July of this year, was headed
by A. N. Jliiminez, who wa·s promptly awa,rded 'I1he Order of the
Wlhite Lion, t he highest Czech decoraltion. Raul Castro, attending
the Spartacus Games in J uly, was
also given the award. 'l'he Czech
Reds haive granted Cuba vredits of
$20,000,000 and have undertaken
to build eight factories worth
$3'2,000,000. A<nd to think of it,
the United States was respons1ble
for t he esta'blishmenlt of CzechoSlov-a kia back in 191,8!
1
plied. La&t year 20 were aUowed
to take lllP studies for the priesth ood. The NITRA diocese. in 1960,
lost 15 priests by death, re'tlirement, and "other reasons"; O!llil.y
one priest was ordained in that
year. The 'I1R!NAVtA diocese is
short 240 pniests. In 1961 only
eleven priests were ordained for
the whdle of Slovak'ia. The Czech
Reds of Prague corut'inue their systematic persecution of the Catholic
Ohurich in Slovakia.
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
THE "PRAVDA" of Bratislava
(Sept. 26, 1'9611) tr•a1msl-ated a column by Drew Pearson and pulblis'hed it in Sloviak. It had appeared in the NIEW YORIK MiIRlRO!R
and d'e alt wit·h the "Berliin issue."
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
The Pravda article was tiitled "Cas
THE BRATISLAVA SEMINARY a uda,l osti su proti USA." (Time
was allowed to accept 15 applicants and Events Are Against 11he USA).
even though 80 young men had ap- Obviously it suited the Reds.
�
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1962, Vol. 12
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Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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SLOVA!{.IA
Published by th• Slovak League of America
VOL. XII
MARiCH-JilJNE, 1962
NO. 1 (35)
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Dr. Jolin Rekem
Slovakia, the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia, is today only a small territory, measuring 18,859 square miles.
It is inha1bited prevailingly by the Slovak nation, a compact, independent national g11oup which belongs to the
Indo-European race and to the large Slovanic family of
people-s.
The Slovak nation at this writing numbers a littlle
over four million people within the confines of Slovakia.
There are over two million in the United States, about a
million in Hungary, some 400,000 in the Czech lands of
Czecho.:Slovakia, and numerous minorities in other countries (France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada, England, Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Australia).
Because one of the most diacritical marks of an "independent nation" is its language, separating or distinguishing one nation from the rest of the sociall groups
forming nations, it may be edifying to review briefly the
historical development of the Slovak language as a manifestation of the ethnic individuality of the Slovak nation.
THE ORIGIN OF SLOVAK CHRISTIAN CULWRE
The ancient Slovaks - penetrating into the territory
of the Danubian Basin sporadically from the second century to the fifth, and thereafter in greater numlbers were exposed to various cultural influences. In the first
place it was the influence of the Christian religion, Christian culture. Christianity came to Slovakia not only from
Germany (the archbishoprics of Regensburg, Passau and
Sa1lzburg) but also from northern Italy (1). It came to them
2
SLOVAKIA
from the people who could not speak the language of the
Slovaks. The great impetus to Christianity in Slovakia
came from Byzantium with the advent of the apostles SS.
Cyril and Methodius in 863. The advent of these two saintly brothers meant a fundamental break-through in the history of Slovak culture and the history of the Slovak nation in general. They brought the foundation of Slovak
ecclesiastical literature to the territory of the Danubian
"Slovieni" - the forefathers of present-day Slovaks - to
whom the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialect was more intelligible than Ger man.
1. The origin of Slovak ecclesiastical literature is dir ectly connected with the Slovak state of Great Moravia
inasmuch St. Cyril (Constantine) tackled the problem of
,c omposing the Slovak alphabet .when he was given the
task of going to Rastislav's principality among the Danubian "Slovieni" with ~the expressed purpose of preaching
the Gospel in their language. Therefore, the impulse to
write the first Slovak books and to compose the Glagolithic alphabet was given by a Slovak ruler.
2. SS. Cyril and Methodius continued in their creative
work of the Slovak ecclesiastical language after their advent in Slovakia {2).
3. In the work of translating and writing, SS. Cyril
and Methodius were aided by their Slovak pupils, especially by the group under Bishop Gorazd ,(3) .
4. The Slovak people accepted the Slovak ecclesiastical tongue as its own, inasmuch this literary language differed only dialectically from the related language which
they spoke at that time. The gigantic strides made by
Christianity in Slovakia after the advent of S,S. Cyril and
Methodius is proof of this, as are also the numerous monasteries which sprang up in Slovakia from the 9th to the
13th centuries.
5. The Slovak ecclesiastical language was recognized
as the language of the Danubian Slovaks by foreign countries (4).
6. When Popes Adrian II and John VII deigned to
a:pprove the Slovak language as the language of sacred
SLOVAKIA
3
liturgy in the land of the Slovaks ,(5), they placed it on
the same level with the other liturgical languages of that
time (Hebrew, Greek, Latin). In effect, they made them
cultural'ly independent and secured for them spiritual freedom and thereby equating the eastern elements with the
western, Byzantium with Rome, organically assimilating
them. Indeed, they roused and strengthened the feeling of
nationa'l individuality and awakened appropriate awareness which is necessary for cultural aggression (6). This
then was supplemented also with the independent Slovak
ecclesiastical organization which included the entire ethnic
territory of the Slovaks in Pannonia, Slovakia, and Moravia. With the influence of this independent organization,
the Slovaks also had political independence.
For these six reasons the Slovak nation and its historians regard the language of the liturgy of SS. Cyril and
Methodius as a part of history of Slovak literature and an
organic part of the general history of the Slovak nation.
The correctness of the evaluation of this historical
fact is further confirmed by these reasons:
1. In the Cyrilo-Methodian memoirs connected with
Great Moravia there are found, even if isolatedly, distinct
and lexical Slovakisms (7).
2. The Cyrillic literary and ecclesiastical tradition remained alive in Slovakia even after Latinization took over,
when the Latin culture and alphabet came to prevail in Slovak literary history (8).
LATIN OVER SLOVAK
With the introduction of the Latin liturgy, which
took place in the 13th century, a cultural switch resulted.
The Slovak cultural basis yielded to the Latin. Latin became the language not only of the liturgy and science, but
also became the medium of communication of all public
life in Hungary. The higher and lesser nobility used it in
political and social life. Slovakia had a large number of
the lesser nobility, the "zemani." They, too, adopted Latin
as the means of communication. The languages of the individual nationalities were pushed to the background, even
4
SLOVAKIA
though we cannot say that they were completely ousted
from public life. Slovak, Iike Magyar and the rest of the
languages of the peoples of Hungary, continued to be the
means of communications of the masses, and the people
continued to use it to create their popular compositions.
In 1460, for example, we find songs composed in the Slovak vernacular afbout "Michael Szilagyi and Vaclav Had'mazi" {9) •.A1so various songs and many legends a'bout good
King Mathias who was a special friend of the living language of the people, because he was brought up in their
environment.
When the Polish clan of the Jagellos came to the Hungarian and Bohemian thrones, we again see that the Slovak language came to use in the court. Literary memoria:ls
of King Vladislav II show linguistic traces of all the Slavonic nations over which he ruled. The letter he wrote to
the people of Bratislava in 1492 contains traces of the
Slovak, Polish and Czech languages {10). When it came to
the spoken word in the Hungarian Assembly, the King
was careful to adapt himself linguistically to the Slovaks
who at that time, culturally and politically, still formed
the nucleus of the Hungarian State. On February 9, 1492,
Vladislav opened the Hungarian Assembly in Budin using
the Slovak language. His speech was then translated into
Magyar by Bishop Valentine of Varadin (11').
The years of the 11th to the 15th century were very
trying years for the land of the Slovaks. Just when the Slovak element had ~most completely assimilated the wild Magyar hordes, the Cumans, relatives of the Magyars, tore into Slovakia in the 12th century and devastated the central
Danube territory. Also in the 12th century, Slovakia was invaded and pillaged by the Tatars. And during the reign of
Andrew II (1205-1235), the crusading armies, marching
through Slovakia, did not spare S'lovakia and its inhabitants
either.
The struggle of various dynasties and noblemen fur the
throne of Hungary in those years (Matthew Cak on the side
of Vaclav against Charles Robert of the House of Anjou),
and then the wild Czech Hussite invasions, were not favor-
SLOVAKIA
5
able for cultural development. Nevertheless, Gothic culture,
which bloomed in the 14th and 15th centuries in Slovakia,
let its rich memorials not only in buildings and other creations, but also in the verba•l art. It is unfortunate that domestic struggles for the throne, the Turkish wars, and the
stormy re'belllions of the malcontents in the 17th century destroyed most of these precious architectural and literary acquisitions ('12).
From the literary creation of the stirring 13th-16th
centuries we nevertheless have the remnants of three kinds
of literary memorials:
1. The compositions or letters written by the Slovaks
in various Slovak dialects.
2. The literary items of Czech immigrants who settled
in Slovakia and wrote in Czech which includes Slovakisms.
3. The correspondence of Czechs to Czechs in Slovakia, or to Slovaks in the Czech language {13)
Historians of Czech literature, failing to make a distinction between these letters and documents, include them
in the category of Slovak literature, and inasmuch as some
of them were written in Czech, they attempted to prove
that Slovak literature is really only a branch of Czech
literature, because, they said, the Slovaks at first wrote
in Czech and only later "separatists" - such as Bernolak
and Stur - caused a rupture from Czech literature.
Qui bene distinguit, bene docet - et, vice versa, qui
male distinguit, male docet. And this saying applies even in
the question of the literary language in Slovakia before
the time of Bernolak. Therefore, we must clearly distinguish between the three types of literary exipression above.
The first group rightfully belongs in Slovak literature and Slovak history. Even though linguistically, especially considering the etymological side, many of these
written memorials are written in the Slovak western dialect which resembles the Czech in many respects, they are
nevertheless Slovak literary memorials (remembrances)
because the western dialect forms a part of the Slovak
language as much as do the dialects of central and eastern
6
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia. They differ from the Czech in the omission of the
soft "R" which is characteristic of the Czech language.
The second and third groups of written letters belong
to Slovak literature only if we consider them in the wider
meaning of the word, that is, as a collection of literary
memorials that were written in Slovakia regardless of the
language medium used. If, however, we consider it in the
narrower sense, then these two groups, since they were
not written in Slovak, rather belong to the literature of
Czech emigrants. Never, however, can they be considered
as proof against the existence of an independent Slovak
language, because along with them and independent of
them are proofs of independent Slovak creations. This is
true not only in regard to the dialect of western Slovakia,
which the Czechs like to confuse with the Czech tongue (14),
but also in regard to the dialects of central Slovakia, Zvolen, Hont, etc. (15) . Officially, liturgical books of the Roman Catholic Church, inasmuch as they used the national
language, already then were oriented directly toward the
central dialect e16).
Contemporary writers and those who used the western
dialect regarded it as the Slovak language. Thus, for example, the productive Protestant preacher Daniel Sinapius Horcicka called his Latin-Slovak dictionary "Neoforum latino-slovenicum"; in 1678, Peter Hrabovsky published his "Manuale Latino-hungarico-slavonicum" in Bardejov; in 162, Peter Benicky wrote his "Verse slovenske
P etra Benickeho" (The Slovak verses of Peter Benicky);
Daniel Krman (1663-1740), the Lutheran superintendent,
used the Czech ot the Kralice Bible for liturgical functions ,
but outside of that cultivated Slovak as is attested to by
his work "Rudimenta grammaticae Slavonicae in gratiam
Slovaciorum concinnara."
While these grammarians used the western dialect of
the Slovak language, the eminent Slovak scholar Mathias
Belius (Funtik was his family name) at that time indicated that the central dialect was the genuine tongue of
the Slovaks, praising it highly {17
It is necessary, too, to mention something about the
1
) .
SLOVAKIA
7
record books of the various guilds which f1lourished in every
Slovak town. The activities of these guilds (minutes of
meetings, activities and regulations, etc.), where they are
not written in Latin, are recorded in Slovak in the dialect
of the respective guilds. Thus, for example, the guild records of Varin, which I made a personal study of, nowhere contain the typical letter of the Czech language,
the soft "f," but phonetically mark the spoken Slovak
words of that time (18). The same may be said of the guild
records of Prievidza (19), and of Trencin ( 20) with their ancient complex orthography. However, the record books of
Skalica - inasmuch as Skalica is located on the border
of Slovakia and Moravia and was inhaibited by Czech guildmasters - Czech influences are in evidence: where the
Master of the guild was a Czech, the Skalica books are
written in Czech; where the Master was a Slovak, the entries were in the western Slovak dialect without the typical
Czech letter "f" (21).
THE SLOVAK OF THE JESUITS
The thing that moved the soul of the Slovak people the effort to participate in the cultural life of the world
in its own spirit, in its own tongue, and on its own stand
- found expression particularly in the efforts of the graduates of the Catholic University of Trnava. This university, founded in 1635 by Archbishop Peter Pazmany
in Trnava, the cultural center of western Slovakia, was directed by the Jesuit Fathers. The University of Trnava
soon became the cultural center for all of Hungary, but
its influence was felt particularly in the Slovak-inhabited
parts of the country.
The university print shop, in the residence of Canon
M. Telegdy, developed into what at that time was considered a gigantic enterprise and it meant the enrichment
of the spirituality of all Hungary and of an its nations.
Here also Slovak literature was multiplied. It was here
that the Slovak lesson books, later dictionaries and religious Slovak writings began to be published. The language
of these literary works was the western Slovak dialect
8
SLOVAKIA
which was not lexicographically uniform, with shades of
the individual western dialects, but it differed from the
Czech most typical expressions which are peculiar only to
the Czechs and which no Slovak dialect possesses; and the
absence of the Cz,ech "r" is plainly evident. Into this western Slovak dialect, which we call "Jesuit Slovak" to differentiate it from the western Slovak dialect which was
grammatically codified by Bernolak, more and more forms
of the central Slovak dialect gradually penetrated.
Thus, for example, in the book of the Senator from
Zilina, convert Nicholas Tamasi which was published in
1691 and titled "Prava katolicka rucni knizka" (A True
Catholic Manual), we find the words "stiastny, krestjansky," etc., which expressly are central Slovakian forms
of present-day literary Slovak, differing from the Czech
corresponding forms "kfesfansky, stestny."
Besides this, the book "Rituale Strigoniense," published by the Trnava Jesuits in 1715, is written in such
beautiful form of the central Slovak dialect that it differs orthographically only to a very little extent from the
Slovak which we find in the "Rituale Slovacchiae" which
was published in the last decade.
The Slovak of the Jesuits - as written and then
spoken in plays presented by th~ Jesuits - even though
from the beginning not uniform and regulated by rigid
orthographical rules, nevertheless is the Slovak language,
because the lexicon and the etymology of this language
place it in the category of the Slovak language. What is
more, the authors of it regard themselves as Slovaks and
claim Slovak as their language, expressly distinguishing
themselves from other Slovanic nations, even from the
Czechs (22).
The attempt of Jesuit S'lovak to grammatically unify
the language of the Slovaks was made before Bernolak's
time, as will be demonstrated shortly, but it was not perfected until Bernolak, the Catholic priest, with his "Dissertatio philologico-critica de literis Slavorum" (published
in Bratislava in 1787), united the Slovak linguistic and national effort on the basis of his orthography.
SLOVAKIA
9
THE SALUTAR Y INFLUEN CE OF JESUIT CULTURE
The Catholic University of Trnava, directed by the Jesuits, left indelible traces in the artistic life of Slovakia.
We must credit the Jesuits for the fact that dramatic
plays were staged not only in Latin, but also in the Slovak language. The students of the Jesuit colleges presented
plays for the people, with a religious or secular theme, in
Slovak. They presented a Slovak play in Bratislava already
in 1628, and in the Spisske Podhradie in 1648. The actors
of Trnava presented Slovak plays in many towns (Skalica,
Levoca, Trencin, etc.). They dis-played their talents in Bratislava in the presence of the emperor himself, who expressed himself very favorably about their performanc e (23).
The epochal significanc e of the Jesuit lovers of Slovak linguistic art rests in their collection of religious
hymns, which they published. In Slovakia, church singing
in the language of the people flourished from the oldest
times, when ancient Slovak was recognized as one of the
few languages of liturgy. The hymn "Hospodine pomiluj
ny" comes to us from the tenth century (24). It was followed by many others. Evidence of this is found in the
introductio n to the ''Cantus Catholici" ( written in the
Spisska Kapitu1a on July 22, 1655, and published by the:
University of Trnava), where it is noted that, besides the
custom in some churches of rendering the Canon of the
Holy Mass in the language of the people, the custom of
the choir singing the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo in the language of the people still obtains in all the Slovak churches
of Pannonia (25).
So that irrelevant hymns in the vernacular might not
find their way into the sa,c red liturgy, ecclesiastic al synods
from the earliest times issued rules and regulations pertaining to appropriate church hymns. Thus, in 1114, the
Synod of Ostrihom (Estergom) ordered that only the
hymns approved by the Synod should be sung in the
churches. Similarly the Synod of Nitra, in 1494, ordered
the daily reading of the Holy Mass with the singing of
hymns in all churches under its jurisdiction in order to
bind the people more intimately with the divine service.
10
SLOVAKIA
Furthermore, in 1560, the Synod very emphatically commands the people to sing only those hymns in their churches
for which there is proof that they had been used a hundred
years before in the Catholic churches, or which were approved by the ecclesiastical authority. In 1629, the Trnava
Synod directed all priests to see to it that the cantors, who
teach singing of church hymns in the schoo[s, use only the
hymns which are approved by the General Vicar. The Sy-.iod, convened in Trnava, in 1638, sent out experts of church
hymns to collect all hymns which the people sing and present them to the church authority for approval and publication (27:).
The professors of the University of Trnava devoted
themselves to this task. They made a collection of old Slovak church hymns, supplemented them with new ones,
and, finally, B. Szolosi, in 1655, published the collection under the title : "Canthus Catholici. Piesne katolicke a latinske
i slovenske: nove i starodavne." This publication had an
enormous significance, because it was the first published
codification of Slovak church songs. It has enjoyed many
editions.
The Slovak Jesuits continued to collect and to compose church hymns in the language . of the people. Later
they pu'blished a collection titled "Cantiones Catholicae."
Many collections in manuscript of this era (17th-18th
century) are preserved in Slovak monasteries and museums, foremost among them is the extensive work (1783)
of composer Pavlin Bajan, a Slovak Franciscan. In the
19th century more and more church hymnals were published (28).
Worthy of mention, too, is the fact that secular Slovak songs, popular ballads, were also collected during the
16th and 17th centuries. The original manuscripts of many
of these were pla·ced in the building of the Slovak Museum
Association of the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) in
Turciansky Svaty Martin. When the Magyars outlawed
the association, the material which they did not destroy
was transferred to the Magyar National Museum.
Very many of the "Canthus Catholici" hymns were
11
SLOVAKIA
placed in the latest "Jednotny katolicky spevnik (Unified
Catholic Hymnal), published in 1937, on account of their
poeticaJ and musical beauty and expression. Thus, the
Jesuit cultural and artistic tradition of the 16th century
even today is performing its mission and making its influence felt in Catholic Slovakia (29).
IN CONCLUSION
In its literary creations, the Slovak nation, both spiritually and linguistically, formed an independent linguistic group since the time of church-Slovak literature (the
Great Moravian Empire). The existence of Czech literature
of Protestant emigrants in Slovakia is not proof that the
Slovaks did not have their own literature. When the Slovaks opened their homes hospita bly to the literature of
Czech exiles, this does not mean that they closed their
homes to their own language, to Slovak literary creations.
Unnatural are the literary-historical constructions of some
Czech literary historians who, motivated more by imperialistic desires and political efforts than scientific objectivity, use all means to deny the independence of Slovak
literary creations, denying even the existence of an independent Slovak language before the time of Bernolak (Prazak, Flajshans, Travnicek).
1
In this treatise we have demonstrated that the Slovak people were conscious of their individuality long before Bernolak's time. What is more, there existed also an
independent Slovak literary language as an expression of
this independence. At first this language medium was not
uniform: literary creations were written in the dialects of
the various provinces. Later (16th-17th centuries) came
the codification of western Slovak as the language of literature in the works of the S'lovak Jesuits, referred to as
the Slovak of the Jesuits. A. Bernolak did not cause a
breach or split between the Slovak and Czech languages.
There was nothing to split. Slovak and Czech, as mediums
of expression of two nations, the Slovak nation and the
Czech nation, existed independently from Cyrilo-Methodian
times. This is a historic fact. Before Bernolak's time there
12
SLOVAKIA
were independent efforts to codify the language of Slovak
literature. Whether the language of Slovak literature was
the dialect of Trnava ("Jesuit Slovak"), or that of upper '
Nitra (Cama1 dulian translation of the Bible), it was always
the language of the Slovaks, as is evidenced by the titles
of dictionaries and grammars of that time (1S lavonicum,
Slavonicae, Slovacciorum, Slovenske, Slovak, Slovensko,
Slavus, Pannonus, etc.). The existence of a uniform "Czechoslovak" language is sheer fiction. It has no historical
foundation and is simply the product of Czech imperialism. This was proved long ago, before the advent of modern Czech literary historians, by J. Kohut, an adherent
of Osvald's literary group who made an extensive study
of thE:' question. Kohut wrote: "From all of this it follows
that Catholic Slovaks (and they always were the vast
majority of the Slovak nation) never wrote in pure Czech
... Slovak Catholics always used Slovak as their literary
medium, being influenced more or less by books which
were published in Czech and which they needed because
of a lack of their own. From the pre ..Bernolakian, that is
the Jesuit, period, our Slovak language appears in books
and in writing, which is more similar to the present manner of writing the older are the sources concerned" (30).
With its discoveries, the new Slovak literary historical school but confirms the truthfulness of Kohut's claim
and finds newer and newer evidences of independent national and linguistic feeling and creativity among the Slovaks. ·
The objectiveless claim of the adversaries of the independent Slovak language, nay, even their claim that their
was no independent Slovak national consciousness before
Bernolak's time, is clearly refuted by the fact that quite
some time before Bernolak's time (1762-1813 ), in 1728,
John Baltazar Magin's (1682-1735) "l\'Iurices ... Sive Apologia . .. " was publish~d in defense of the political rights
of the Slovak nation which formed a component part of
Hungary. This apology, prepared by Magin at the request
of the nobility estates of Trencin, is the highest expression of Slovak national and political self-consciousness and
SLOVAKIA
13
a defense of the Slovak language which is a symbol or the
characteristic of the Slovak nation. If there were no other
documentation to prove the existence of an independent
Slovak language and Slovak nationalism before the time
of Bernolak, then Magin's "Apologia" would alone be sufficient or adequate. However, the Lord be praised, there
are also other evidences, like the translation of the Holy
Writ into Slovak (1756) before Bernolak's time, as well
as dictionaries, grammars, popular poetic creations, public and private correspondence, etc.
From this it follows that the Slovak nation did use
its own Slovak language as a manifestation of its own individuality and medium of expression and understanding
from the time of the church-Slovak literary memorials (the
Great Moravian Empire). From the most ancient times,
the Slovak language symbolized the Slovak nation and in
the history of the Slovaks these two notions were correlative.
REFERENCES
1. The "Cividalsky evangeliar" contains evidence that the Sfo•
vaks had direct contact with centers of Christian oivilizati-on in
Ital'Y. Con1.pare Jan Sitanislav: "Zo itudia slovanskych osobn,y ch mien
v Evanjeliu cividalskom," Slavia X¥1!1[, 194'7, pp. 871-1!()0, and his
"Slovenski putnici do Talianska koncom VIII. a v IX. storoci,"
Nas Narod, m, 1944', w. 89--96.
2. 'Dhe comipletion of the translation of the Hol'Y Writ on October 26, on the territory of Great Moraivia
3. Jan Stanislav: "Slovanski apoitolovia Cyril a Me,tod a ich
cinnost' vo Vel'komorav·s kej .risi," Sl<Nenska akademia vded a umeni
(SIAV'lJ), Bratislava, 1945; A. A. Banik: "Apostol Gorazd, prvy raz v
dejinach spominany slovensky knaz, spisovatel' a svatec," Kultura,
IX, 1937.
4. 'Pope Hadrian II's letter to the Slovak princes RJa,s tislav, SviitQ1Pluk and Kocel' . . . "in your language ... " .Afso Pope John \l'III's
Bull (880) in which he "legaUy approves and orderu;" the Slovak
scru'pture for the Danwbian Slovieni.
5. Pope John VIEI's Bull "lndustriae tuae" to Sviitopluk.
6. Jofo K. Smalov: "Zastoj kato:lkkej hi,e rarchie v slovensk,o m
narod,nom a kulturnom zivote, v M/ONS SAINCT!I MAIRIDIINlI, Rufomlberok, 1947, p. 60.
7. Smal'ov, op. cit.
8. Evidence of this are the Cyrillian :firagments found in the
old codex of the li!brary of the Spisska Kapitula. See also: Alojz
14
SLOVAKIA
Mi§kovic's "Spisske Cyrilske ulomky X ~l.•XilU. storocia (I), lch Nale:r:
1929, pp. 80-,81, and Valer pogorielov's "Spisske
Cyrilske ulomky :X:lil.-XIIIII. storocia; ich pOlpis, ro:zJbor a otisk" OJI).
pp. 81"87.
9. Jan Kollar: "Narodne Zpievanky," VoI. 1, pp. 31-32, 45, a,nd
Vol. lil, pp. 7• and following.
10. CzeC'h and '"Czechoslov;ak" hi'Storians violate history when,
without regard to Vladislav Jagiello's origLn, and without re~•ard for
lc-ertaiin common orthographical similarities between Czech and
Polish, they claim these common Polish4Czech forms as Czechism.
The use of "rz" in some documents tn Slovakia in the forim not ,of
"R" but "RZ" is not proof di a Czec'hi-sm, but rather is evidence O'f
Polish, especially w hen the persons using them are of Polish o·r igin.
111. Jan Por,u/bsky: "K stemu Vyrociu t.iterarnej Slovenciny,"
1J945, Obr,ana Press, Scranton, Pa., p. 73.
12. Gillbert L. Oddo: "Slovakia and Its People," Robert Speller
and Sons, Ntew Y-0r,k, 1960, p:p. 27-70.
113. The Hrussite Czechs invaded Sloviakia in the 15th century
for plunder and to fight against the Slovak nolbility, who preferred
a Polish J,a,geiUonian to a Czech on the Hu,n,garian throne.
14. 'llhe ill-<l'aimed Albert Prazak, Flajshans, and others.
1•5. Arn ana'1ysis of these songs from the year 11576 on is in Jan
Porulbsky\s work; op. oit., p. 76.
16. 'Dhe 1560 edition of the Ostrihom (lEstergom) Ritual contains centraVSloviak expressions, which sound very much like the
Slovak ,of today (krst, sob.a§, etc.).
17. Mathias Funtik, (1687Lli7'49), in his work "lnstitutiones Lin•
guae Germanicae et Slavicae in Hunga,ria" (L,evoca, 17,18); "In noth,i,ng is it ,b ehind either the seriousness a,nd ~ra,n deur o'f Spanish,
or the charm and smoothness Olf Fr-ench, or the sulbliimity and force
of English, or the wealth of meaning and emphasis of German, or
the softness and ewphony, of Italy, or, finaHy, the imperious rigor
of Magyar."
18. The guild books uf Varin come from the years 1,668-1714;
some were ,placed in my l~brary, othens i,n the homes O'f individual
guildmasters.
19. Mii!lmlas Misik: "Prievidzke cechy," also his "Mesto Prievidza;" and Jan Poru'bsky, o,p. cit., p. 90.
20. Jlozef Branecky: Zo stareho Trencina," 1928, 1-J!Il[.
21. Jlozef Satek: "Naboienske pomery v Skalici od Reformacie
do Jozefinizmu,'' S:polok sv. Vojtecha (SSV), Tr,n,ava, 1J946 (the Czech
text of the guild book is quoted on p. 188, the Slovak on p. 200).
'Frantisek V. Sasinek: "Cechovne artikule ievcov v Skalici r. 1615",
Sloverusky Letopis m. pp. 31,0.3>14'. livan Houdek: "Cechovnictvo na
Slovensku," Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1943.
22. Ev>en J~ros1av Vlcek, lik,e other Czech literary historians,
incorreic.tly claims that Stefan D:uibnljlcay wrote in Czech and places
his work,s in the Czech ca<tegory. But Dulbnicay, writing in the
western .dialect df Slovaki-a, did not use the typi-cal Czech "R" or
{[I[)", BratislalV'a,
SLOVAKIA
15
"RZ" i.n bis works. In the Latin foreword Olf bi·s "Eductus coluber
tortuosus" (l 723~, in the letter Off the Bishop af Vrati.slava (Breslau; W;r6claw in Polish), he di:fiferentiates ·b etween the Slovaks and
<nechs (''IBohemi et Slavi"). See Jan Rekem's "Stefan Dubnicay a
jeho doba" (in the chapter titled "Slovanske narodne povedomie v
d1ele St. Dubnicaya"), Trencin, 19412.
23. St. JuroV1Sky: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku."
24. Accord~ng to Skultety, it is necessary to seek the origin, of
this song in Slovakia.
25. Benedikt Szolosi, S.J. (1609-1656), in the introduction to
Cantus Catholici, Trnava, 1655.
26. C. Peterfy: "Sacra Concilia Eccl. R. Cath. in Regno Hungariae celebrata, I, 1,74!1·, p. 60 (ca,p. XIIJW). "Nihil legatur vel cantetur in Ecclesia, nisi q:uod fuer'it in Synodo collaudatum."
'217. Jan Postenyi: "Privet, Jednotny Katolicky Spevnik," Trnava,
SSV, 193'7 .
.28. The "large edition" of the ".Tednotny Kratolicley S'pevnik"
(1937) mentions eight various hymnals which were published, some
Olf which went into several editions.
29. F'or t.he history o.f Slovak spiritual songs of this era, see
Dr. Jan Rlikem's "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo star!ej eschatologickej poezie trencianskeho Povaiia," Celko, Tr-enci,n,, 1~.
30. Literarne Listy, 1891:, pp. 64-66.
LITERATURE
Banik A. A.: "Slovenska rec a jej ... vyvoj", in the Pamatnica (Album) of the Tatran, Brno, 1923; "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho
politicka narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov," in the
Sbornik ~Magazine) LV-0, SSV, Vol. Jilil, No. 1•2, Tr.navia, 1936.
•B obek W.: "Prehl'adne dejiny slov. literatury," Bratislaiva, 1'939.
Botto Jul.: "Slovaci. Vyvin ich narodneho Povedomia," Tore. Sv.
Miar,tin, 11923.
·B ujnak P.: "Hlavne prudy a snahy v literature Slovenskej do L:.
Stura," slovemiska citanka, Praha, 1925.
IBranecky J. : "Zo stareho Trencina," Trencin, 1928.
Bucko V. : "Reformne hnutie v arcibiskupstve ostrihomskom do r.
1564," Bratislava, 1939; "Mikulas Olah a jeho doba," B;r,atislrav-a, 194!0.
Corpusiuris Hungarici, Budae, 1.717·9.
Fejer G.: "Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus et civilis,"
Budae, 1829-1844.
Faith St.: "Slovenski katolicki kazatelia X~lll. storoc:M," Teologica
Catholica Slovaca, Br,a tislava, I, 1941.
IFlajshans V.: "Pisemnictvi ceske," Praha, 1901.
[)iels P.: "Altkirchenslavische Grammatik," Heidellbe:iig, 1, 193~;
][, 1934.
Dorosenko D.: "Slavianskij Svit," Berlin, 19.22.
Dubn-iczaj St.: "Eductus coluber tortuosus," Tyrnaviae, 1.7•23.
16
SLOVAKIA
Hodza M.: "Ceskoslovensky rozkol," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1920.
iHoudek I.: "Cechovnictvo na Slovensku," Turc. ,Sv. Martin, 1943.
Hrusovsky F.: "Slovenske Dejiny," Turc. Sv. Martin, 1939.
tHuri>an J. M.: "Slovensko a jeho iivot literarny," Siovenske pohl'ady, 11847.
Chaloupecky V.: "Stare Slovensko," Bratislarva, 1!}23,; "Kniha Zilinska,'' Bratislava, 1934'; "Stredoveke listy ze• Slovenska,'' Bratislava--Praha, 1937.
C'hrobak D.: "Rukovat' dejin slov. litera,tury," Prnha-IBratislava, 1932.
!Kacka-J. !Kramoris: "A Short Histo.ry of Slovak Literature," The National News, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1944.
Kirschbaum J.: "Slovak Nation At the Crossroads of Central Eu.rope,"
New York, 1·960.
Kollar J.: "Narodne Zpievanky," I, LI, Budin, 1835.
!Krcmery St.: "Prehl'ad dejin slovenskej literatury a vzdelanosti,"
'1:urc. Sv. Martin, 1921.
I.tepacek C.: "Frantiskani v slovenskej literature pred Bernolakom,"
Kultura, Trna,va, 193'7.
Lesldev A.: "Grammatik der Altbulgarischen Sprache," Heide]berg,
1919.
Jialkulbec J.: "Dej iny lit. c:eske," fil, Praha, 1,93'2.
Jirecek J.: "Rukovet' k dejinam Lit. c:eske," Praha, 1•875.
Jlungman J.: "Histo.rie literatury c:eske," Praha, 18419.
Misik, M.: ''Husiti na Slovenslkiu," Banska Bystriica, 1'9 28; "Prievidza,"
Trnava, 1'944.
Miskovic A.: "Spisske Cyril,ke ulomky x ,11.-XIII. storocia. I. lch NalH,"
m, Bratislava, 1929.
M.islm\'ic A.-Pisut M.: "Dejiny slovenskej literatury,'' Bratislaiva, 1,941.
Miiklosich F.: "Vergleichende Gramma•t ik der Slavischen Sprache, I-IV,"
Heidelberg, 1926.
Oddo Gilbert: "Slovakia and Its People," New York, 1960.
-Osva1d R.: "Literarne Listy," 1891~11894.
P,e trik G.: "Magyar bibliographiaja,'' Buda,pest, 1'888.
P-o gorielov V.: "Spisske cyrilske ulomky, II. lch popis, rozbor a otisk,"
Bratislava, m, 1929.
Porulbslky J.: "K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny," Scranton, Pa.,
19415.
Prazak A.: "Dej iny spisovnej slovenc:iny po dobu Sturovu," Praha,
1922; "Rukovet' dej iny c:eske literatury," Tu\aha, 19211; "Sbornik I. sjezdu slovanskych filologu v Praze 1929," Pr-a ha, 1932;
"Slovenska svojskost','' Bratislava, 1,92'6.
iRekem Jan: "Stefan Dubnicaj a jeho doba," Trencin, 1943; "Z kultur•
nych dejin Trencianskeho Povaiia," Trencin, 1943; "Teplanske duchovne piesne. Zo s,tarsej eschatologickej poezie," Trencin, 1943; "Bibliografia trencianskych tlac:i a vydani," Trencin, 1194!4.
Rizner U.: "Bibliografi.a pisomnictva slovenskeho," Turc. Sv. Mar~n,
1933'.
Rarpant D.: "K poc:iatkom mad'arizacie," Bratislaiva, 1931; "Mad'ar6nstvo Bernolakovo," Bratislava, 1930.
17
SLOVAKIA
Sasinek V.: "Slovensky Letopis," I-ll!l!I.
Stanislav J .: "Zo studia slovanskych osobnych mien v Evanjeliu c1v1d,a lskom," Slavia, XVl]l, 1947';"Slovenski put111ici do Talianska koncom VIII . a v IX. storocia," Nas narod, lil, 1'944;"Slovanski apostol'ovia Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi," SAVIU, Bratislava, 1945.
Sa!fari1k P. J .: "Geschichte der slaw. Sprache und Literature," Prag,
1869.
Sabek J.: " Naboienske pomery V Skal ici od .reformacie do jozef inizmu," SSV, 'Jlrnaiva, 1946.
Smalov.JKutniik J.: "Zastoj katolickej hierarchie v slove-nskom na rodnom a kulturnom iivote," Mons Seti Martini, Rufomberok,
1947.
Spirko J .: "Cirkevne dejiny," 'l'urc. Sv. Martin, 1943.
Varsik B.: "Husiti a reformacia na Slovensku do iilinskej synody,"
Brati:slava, 119312; "Nar'o dnostny problem t.rnavskej univerzity,"
Bratislava, 1:9318.
Vlcek J .: "Dejiny literatury slovenskej," Turc. Sv. MiartJin, 192 3; "De jiny litel'atury ceske," Pr,a ha, 1'93 1!
Weiss-Nage'1 Sit.: "Jezuitske divadlo na Slovensku v XVII. a XVIIII.
storoci," in the Album of th,e Trnavia University 163&-177f71,
'l'r,nava, 1'935.
ZeUiger A.: "Egyhazi ir6k csarnoka," Nagysz,ombat, 1893; "Pantheon
1
1
Ty.rnav iense bibliographicam continens recens ionem operum
typis Tyrnaviensibus aa1578-1930 editorum iconibus nonnullis
i llustratum," Tyrnaviae, 1'931.
RED C~ECH eX:perts, including
experts on police and espionage
ma't'ters, arie in Oulba to heip Fidel
Oastro in his fight ag-aii,nst Amer.i.can imperialism, a·ccording to reports. The head of a Cuban delegation, which arrived in Prague
in July of this year, was headed
by A. N. Jliiminez, who wa·s promptly awa,rded 'I1he Order of the
Wlhite Lion, t he highest Czech decoraltion. Raul Castro, attending
the Spartacus Games in J uly, was
also given the award. 'l'he Czech
Reds haive granted Cuba vredits of
$20,000,000 and have undertaken
to build eight factories worth
$3'2,000,000. A<nd to think of it,
the United States was respons1ble
for t he esta'blishmenlt of CzechoSlov-a kia back in 191,8!
1
plied. La&t year 20 were aUowed
to take lllP studies for the priesth ood. The NITRA diocese. in 1960,
lost 15 priests by death, re'tlirement, and "other reasons"; O!llil.y
one priest was ordained in that
year. The 'I1R!NAVtA diocese is
short 240 pniests. In 1961 only
eleven priests were ordained for
the whdle of Slovak'ia. The Czech
Reds of Prague corut'inue their systematic persecution of the Catholic
Ohurich in Slovakia.
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
THE "PRAVDA" of Bratislava
(Sept. 26, 1'9611) tr•a1msl-ated a column by Drew Pearson and pulblis'hed it in Sloviak. It had appeared in the NIEW YORIK MiIRlRO!R
and d'e alt wit·h the "Berliin issue."
)Jg
)Jg
)Jg
The Pravda article was tiitled "Cas
THE BRATISLAVA SEMINARY a uda,l osti su proti USA." (Time
was allowed to accept 15 applicants and Events Are Against 11he USA).
even though 80 young men had ap- Obviously it suited the Reds.
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Title
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The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language
Description
An account of the resource
Dr. John Rekem
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 1-17
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Rekem, Ján, 1917-1989
Date
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March-June 1962
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18
SLOVAKIA
EXPELLEES AND THE EUROPEAN IDEA
BY OTTO VON HAIB,SBUiRG
When Joseph Stalin seized upon the plan of Edward
Benes to expel the Germans from the Bohemian lands, and
when Communism expanded the idea to include the entire "Intermare" area between the Baltic and the Adriatic,
his intention was not only to do his faithful vassals a favor. All political measures adopted by Communist politicians have their place in the great plan of world revolution. The expulsion of German ethnic groups from CzechoSlovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, which
is continued in the indirect but uninterrupted flight of
Germans from the German Soviet Zone, was supposed to
render more difficult the stabi1ization of West Germany
and that of all Europe, if not hinder it altogether.
It was supposed, furthermore, to pave the way for
Communism. Moscow expected, as a consequence of the
flooding of West Germany with expellees, that an "imminent revolutionary situation" would develop. It is perhaps
Stalin's biggest disappointment after Potsdam that the
hopes he pinned on the masses of pauperized and expropriated expellees were never realized. It is in fact the greatest "miracle" that has happened in West Germany - far
greater and more meaningful than the "economic miracle"
- that the expeHees did not become the reserve army of
communism but, on the contrary, a constructive force and
the bearers of constructive thinking for all of Europe.
Moscow counted on it becoming impossible to integrate the expellees into the economy and society of West
Germany. The West German State, it figured, or West
German society would perhaps be incapable of adequately
caring for the masses of expellees housed in vast barracks. Filled with resentment and bitterness, doubtful of
a chance for return as well as of a new means of livelihood, overcome by camp psychoses and the will to destroy, the millions of expellees were expected in the eyes
of the general staff of the world revolution, to become
partisans and outriders of the Red offensive.
�SLOVAKIA
19
While the West Germans were being bled white on
the modest attempt to provide for these homeless persons
or at least keeip them from starving to death, the victims
themselves were expected, as social outcasts and expellees,
to undermine legal security, prevent every form of political sta;bilization, burden the economy unendurably and
thus succumb to the whi.sperings of Communist agents.
The "solution" of the refugee problem in the Soviet
occupied zone, where they wanted to create an example of
Marxist social policy by "land reform" and the settling of
expellees as "new settlers," was supposed to entice those
expellees residing in the West likewise to become champions of Communism. Hatred of the Americans, who by
their "betrayal of humanity" were the alleged cause of all
the trouble, the rupture of national solidarity of the German people by an unbridgeaJble gap between old and new
citizens, the hopelessness of a situation from which revolution seemed but the only way out, and the classic union
of national or nationalist passions with social-revolutionary impulses to national Bolshevism - all that appeared
i.n 1945 to be a guarantee that the Communist revolution
would advance to the Rhine within a very short time, and
soon would go beyond the Rhine. It seemed, too, that irts
strongest pillars would be those who had caused their own
misery.
There was a catchword that e:xipressed everything the
Communists expected from the expellees at thait time : Macedonians. Just as pro-Bulgarian elements within Macedonia, which had become Sel'lbian in 1913, not only fought
against Serbian rule in the old homeland but became a constant revolutionary danger in their host counfu'y of Bulgaria, too, overthrowing governments, forming conspiracies,
stirring up the people and trying to implicate the State in
a policy fraught with risks, so the East Germans, the Sudetens, the Carpait·hians, Hungarian and Banat Germans
were to have formed the e:x:plosive, with its fuse in Moscow,
that would completely destroy Europe.
Many are the reasons for things haviing turned out differently, motives that coincided to give developments a turn
�20
SLOVAKIA
unforeseen by Moscow. First of all was the lack of caution
by Stalin, wh.o prematurely took off his mask in the Greek
civil war; tJhen the Czech putsch of February 1948, followed by the blockade of Berlin, the Bolshevization CYf China,
and, finally, with the invasion of Korea, in this way touching
off America's reaction to his policy of permanent revolution
by the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the German
currency reform and the re-estaiblishment of a German
State.
Nor should we forget either, the sober attitude of the
American nation, which was prepared to revise dangerous
mistakes just as radically as it had once succumbed to them,
or the talents of the German people in the organizational,
technical and economic field. The rapidly widening gap in
the standard of living between people this side and the other
side of the iron curtain was also important. All this and still
more combined to cause Stalin's hopes to wither toward
the end of his life, leading to a serious crisis of Communism
between 1952 and 1956, which the West, however, did not
know how to take proper advantage of.
The ohief merit in the failure of the Benes-Stalin concept is to be attriibuted to the eX:pellees themselves, who, by
remarkable self-discipline, moderation and objectivity, refrained from any policy of daring and revenge and, with
minor exceptions, remained completely immune to Communist attempts at infiltration. They did not succumb for a
minute to the danger of becoming the "Macedonians" of
West Germany, but, instead, became the supporters of constructive European ideas.
It is one of the most significant achievements of the
expellees that t'hey have whetted the conscience of the free
peoples and continually exhorted them to self-examination.
International law, ever since the first world war, has increasingly fallen into decay, the concepts of riight and wrong
have become confused ever since they were turned over to
the propaganda apparatuses and the whim of mass passions to interpret them according to their own discretion
and misuse them for the interests of power.
In particular the motto of self-determination of peo-
�SLOVAKIA
ples, even during the interpretation of the Fourteen Points
of Woodrow Wilson, was distorted beyond recognition and
actually twisted to the opposite. 'Dhe expellees have not
simply stanted at the po,i nt at which the concept was perverted and hence d~based. They related the demand for the
right of self-determination to a large extent to a critical
examination of German poLicy and to the political attitude
of ethnic groups in the period prior to the first world war
and in the thirties. They have seriously and in a thoroughgoing manner concerned themselves with the ethical motivation of the right to the homeland and have encouraged
not only the experts on international and constitutional law
in the free world, but, to an ever-growing degree, the t heologians to explore the right to the homeland in conjunction
with the right to self-determination, self-government and
self- administration, and to acquire, by so-doing, guiding
principles for a new order in Europe. In the Charter of the
Expellees we find the first results of that process of examination of conscience, of historic study, and of practical
political consideraJt.ion of the possible and attainable.
That was but the beginning. With the renouncing of
revenge and retaliation, an ethical principle was anchored
>in politics which had never before appeared with such clarity in the realm of international-legal considerations and
in political aims. Today we can see in the Algerian issue
that it was not just a question of problems touohing on East
Germany and the Danubian area. It is a -suriprising fact, and
may well fill with satisfaction those expellees W\ho come
from old Austria, to know tihat the plans and proposals that
were introduced by the French government toward a solut ion of the Algerian problem, approach those ideas that matured on Austrian soil between 1848 and 1918 and which
were furtiher developed by the Sudeten Germans and could
be matured in the struggle for the recognition of the right
to the homeland.
What formerly was a matter thaJt. concerned or appeared to concern only the Austrians and was understood
by the peoples and ethnic groups of the Danubian Monarchy and of the German-Polish bovder area or the Baltic
�22
SLOVAKIA
States, today has become a question of the destiny of the
free world and of Europe in particular. Africa, the Near
East, India, and in Europe the regions in which there are
still national issues this side of the iron curtain (South Tyrol), all need certain binding international-legal and constitutional-legal ideas and principles for solution and a new
order, for satisfaobion and settlement.
German e~pellees were the first to turn the attention
of the free world to this vital problem and produced the
first fruitful stimu~i. The contri'butions to thoughts on
solving the nationalities problem made by Karl Renner and
Ritter von Lodgman, Ignaz Seipel and Josef Redlich, Adolf
Fisohhof and Franz Palacky, Aurel Popovici and Heinrich
Lammasch, and, a:bove all, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
his "workshop," are today acqui:r,ing world-wide importance. It was tJhe expellees who bridged the gap between
past and present, between a territorially limited e:x!perimental station of co-living of various peoples in a State Community and the present global aspects of the question.
As Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Strauss, stated at
the Sudeten German Day in Munich, 1960, it is important
not only to proclaim a right but to examine within wihat
framework and within what higher legal order it can most
ideally be reaHzed. At this very juncture the moderated
conduct of the expellees proved a valua;ble maxim for all
Europe. There are those who never tire of painting the expellee associations ·in Germany as disturber.s of the peace,
"revengists," and nationalists. Only the reverse, however,
is true. 'Dhe expellees were the first sizeable groups among
the German people who displayed understanding for the
integration policy of Adenauer and Sohuman, who supported it and ciharacterized the formation of supra-naJtional
European arrangements as a condition for a new peaceful
order for all Europe, in particular for East Central Europe.
In the Eichstatt Declaration of 1949, in the Detmold Declaration, and in the rapidly ensuing resolutions and decisions of numerous associations - particularly the Wiesbaden Agreement between the Sudeten Germans and the
Czechs in exile - there appeared for the first time propo-
�SLOVAKIA
23
sals for a new European legal and State order within the
framework of supra-State and supra-national organizations.
And that is quite natural, too. The expellees bring from
their homeland a rich storehouse of experiences and traditions which are directed to the necessity of international
and supra-national agreements and organizations, to the
dovetailing of autonomous, State and supra.:state faci'lities,
to a common destiny and inseparability of vital communities in which different languages are spoken, with the
right to linguistic and cultural autonomy, minority rights,
and the complemenlting of territorial with personal selfadministration. In the areas where once the expellees had
lived for centuries, the national.,State idea early proved to
be problematical. The principal West European peoples
looked upon the integral national State as an ideal ever
since 1789, and retained their views into the 191:Jh Century.
Whereas in France, Germany, and Italy tJhe ideas of
the great Europeans met with tough opposition, since people simply could not imagine that portions of national sovereignty could and must be yielded, the expellees very
quickly realized that this was a viltal condition for the realizaition of their claims to recognition of the right to the
homeland and they unreservedly offered their services to
the Europe of tomorrow. For them federalism was never
a mere substrat-ificaition of the over-all State into bureaucratically administered areas of sovereignty, but was always linked to a maximum measure of self-administration
and responsibility of the lower strata. From this treasury
of experience they could and still can give Europe very
much.
In addition thereto are the temperament, spirit of enterprise, and economic adaptability of old pioneer and colonizing races. The German "economic miracle," particularly in its incipiency, needed certain attributes which the
Germans from the East possessed to a high degree. Plus
the fact, that they had nothing to lose and a new live1ihood to gain. Henice they were courageous enough to build
a new economy from the ruins. The ambition to dispel the
prejudices against those who arrived as "beggars," to
�24
SLOVAKIA
prove their ability, and not just to acquire formal political
equality but the respeot of their fellow citizens as well all this contributed to the expellees' becoming a constructive European force in the economic sphere.
Finally, one may point to their importance as conoisseurs of the Eastern peoples and political conditions of
East European life. Thus in a certain sense one can speak
of a re-colonizaJtion. IDight centuries ago the big trek began: Germans and Dutch colonists bore European civilizat ion eastwards. The progeny of these colonists came back
to the West after 1945 as ex;pellees. They did not come as
beneficiaries but brought with them as working people,
politically active leaders and the bearers of a culture, tihe
readiness to rebuild a new ·Europe. Tihey brought experience, skills, courage, and the concept of surpra..national
legal order.
One hundred years ago on
Decemlber 12, 1861 - Btshop Stephen Moyses cxf Slovakia led a delegation, of Slovaks to Emperor
Franois Jloseph to protest against
Magyarization and the oppression
of his Slovak people. The Memorandum presented the Emperor requested equa'l rights for the Slovaks and that the territory of the
Slovaks becoone a separate adminisitrative unit, that is, tihalt it become autonoonous.
anested again in 1950, and in the
beginning of 11951 placed on trial
with Bishops Vojtassak and Gojdic. The kalllgaroo court sentenced
him to life imprisonment as ail•
"enemy of the State." With amnesty in 1'961, Bi.shop Buzalka left
prison to live under surveillance
of the police at all times. Tihey
found him dead, kneeling by his
bed, hands clasped in prayer. Significant it is that even the "Katolicke Noviny" (The• Catholic
~
:IC
:IC
News) did not report the death
Bishop Michael Buzalka, Auxili- of Bishop Buzal!ka, patriot amd
ary of the Trnava Apostolic Ad- martyr for the cause of his Church
ministrature, died on Dec. 7, 'liOOl, and his Slovak people.
:IC
:IC
:IC
according to a very belated report. Born in Sviity Anton, Slov,aBishop Joseph t arsky, Titular
kia, Sept. 18, 11885, Bishop Buzal- Bishop of Tagora and apostolic adka was ordained priest July 14, ministr-ator for t he diocese of Ko1908, and consecrated Bishop in sice, Slovakia, died March 1•2,
Riome on May '1'5, 1938. He was 1962, and was buried four days
rector of the Bratislava Seminariy Iat,e r in the cathedral cr,yipt after
and, during the war, Militazy Oir- appropriate religious servwes. Bidiir.iary for the Slovak Republic. shoip Carsky was born in G!bely,
In 1•945, Bishop Buzalka was im- Slovakia, May 9, 1886, ordained
prisoned, with two other Bishops priest Jiu}y 26, 1909, and named
and many Slovak priests by ,t he bishop by the Vatican July 14,
Reds, but later released. He was 1925.
�
18
SLOVAKIA
EXPELLEES AND THE EUROPEAN IDEA
BY OTTO VON HAIB,SBUiRG
When Joseph Stalin seized upon the plan of Edward
Benes to expel the Germans from the Bohemian lands, and
when Communism expanded the idea to include the entire "Intermare" area between the Baltic and the Adriatic,
his intention was not only to do his faithful vassals a favor. All political measures adopted by Communist politicians have their place in the great plan of world revolution. The expulsion of German ethnic groups from CzechoSlovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, which
is continued in the indirect but uninterrupted flight of
Germans from the German Soviet Zone, was supposed to
render more difficult the stabi1ization of West Germany
and that of all Europe, if not hinder it altogether.
It was supposed, furthermore, to pave the way for
Communism. Moscow expected, as a consequence of the
flooding of West Germany with expellees, that an "imminent revolutionary situation" would develop. It is perhaps
Stalin's biggest disappointment after Potsdam that the
hopes he pinned on the masses of pauperized and expropriated expellees were never realized. It is in fact the greatest "miracle" that has happened in West Germany - far
greater and more meaningful than the "economic miracle"
- that the expeHees did not become the reserve army of
communism but, on the contrary, a constructive force and
the bearers of constructive thinking for all of Europe.
Moscow counted on it becoming impossible to integrate the expellees into the economy and society of West
Germany. The West German State, it figured, or West
German society would perhaps be incapable of adequately
caring for the masses of expellees housed in vast barracks. Filled with resentment and bitterness, doubtful of
a chance for return as well as of a new means of livelihood, overcome by camp psychoses and the will to destroy, the millions of expellees were expected in the eyes
of the general staff of the world revolution, to become
partisans and outriders of the Red offensive.
�SLOVAKIA
19
While the West Germans were being bled white on
the modest attempt to provide for these homeless persons
or at least keeip them from starving to death, the victims
themselves were expected, as social outcasts and expellees,
to undermine legal security, prevent every form of political sta;bilization, burden the economy unendurably and
thus succumb to the whi.sperings of Communist agents.
The "solution" of the refugee problem in the Soviet
occupied zone, where they wanted to create an example of
Marxist social policy by "land reform" and the settling of
expellees as "new settlers," was supposed to entice those
expellees residing in the West likewise to become champions of Communism. Hatred of the Americans, who by
their "betrayal of humanity" were the alleged cause of all
the trouble, the rupture of national solidarity of the German people by an unbridgeaJble gap between old and new
citizens, the hopelessness of a situation from which revolution seemed but the only way out, and the classic union
of national or nationalist passions with social-revolutionary impulses to national Bolshevism - all that appeared
i.n 1945 to be a guarantee that the Communist revolution
would advance to the Rhine within a very short time, and
soon would go beyond the Rhine. It seemed, too, that irts
strongest pillars would be those who had caused their own
misery.
There was a catchword that e:xipressed everything the
Communists expected from the expellees at thait time : Macedonians. Just as pro-Bulgarian elements within Macedonia, which had become Sel'lbian in 1913, not only fought
against Serbian rule in the old homeland but became a constant revolutionary danger in their host counfu'y of Bulgaria, too, overthrowing governments, forming conspiracies,
stirring up the people and trying to implicate the State in
a policy fraught with risks, so the East Germans, the Sudetens, the Carpait·hians, Hungarian and Banat Germans
were to have formed the e:x:plosive, with its fuse in Moscow,
that would completely destroy Europe.
Many are the reasons for things haviing turned out differently, motives that coincided to give developments a turn
�20
SLOVAKIA
unforeseen by Moscow. First of all was the lack of caution
by Stalin, wh.o prematurely took off his mask in the Greek
civil war; tJhen the Czech putsch of February 1948, followed by the blockade of Berlin, the Bolshevization CYf China,
and, finally, with the invasion of Korea, in this way touching
off America's reaction to his policy of permanent revolution
by the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the German
currency reform and the re-estaiblishment of a German
State.
Nor should we forget either, the sober attitude of the
American nation, which was prepared to revise dangerous
mistakes just as radically as it had once succumbed to them,
or the talents of the German people in the organizational,
technical and economic field. The rapidly widening gap in
the standard of living between people this side and the other
side of the iron curtain was also important. All this and still
more combined to cause Stalin's hopes to wither toward
the end of his life, leading to a serious crisis of Communism
between 1952 and 1956, which the West, however, did not
know how to take proper advantage of.
The ohief merit in the failure of the Benes-Stalin concept is to be attriibuted to the eX:pellees themselves, who, by
remarkable self-discipline, moderation and objectivity, refrained from any policy of daring and revenge and, with
minor exceptions, remained completely immune to Communist attempts at infiltration. They did not succumb for a
minute to the danger of becoming the "Macedonians" of
West Germany, but, instead, became the supporters of constructive European ideas.
It is one of the most significant achievements of the
expellees that t'hey have whetted the conscience of the free
peoples and continually exhorted them to self-examination.
International law, ever since the first world war, has increasingly fallen into decay, the concepts of riight and wrong
have become confused ever since they were turned over to
the propaganda apparatuses and the whim of mass passions to interpret them according to their own discretion
and misuse them for the interests of power.
In particular the motto of self-determination of peo-
�SLOVAKIA
ples, even during the interpretation of the Fourteen Points
of Woodrow Wilson, was distorted beyond recognition and
actually twisted to the opposite. 'Dhe expellees have not
simply stanted at the po,i nt at which the concept was perverted and hence d~based. They related the demand for the
right of self-determination to a large extent to a critical
examination of German poLicy and to the political attitude
of ethnic groups in the period prior to the first world war
and in the thirties. They have seriously and in a thoroughgoing manner concerned themselves with the ethical motivation of the right to the homeland and have encouraged
not only the experts on international and constitutional law
in the free world, but, to an ever-growing degree, the t heologians to explore the right to the homeland in conjunction
with the right to self-determination, self-government and
self- administration, and to acquire, by so-doing, guiding
principles for a new order in Europe. In the Charter of the
Expellees we find the first results of that process of examination of conscience, of historic study, and of practical
political consideraJt.ion of the possible and attainable.
That was but the beginning. With the renouncing of
revenge and retaliation, an ethical principle was anchored
>in politics which had never before appeared with such clarity in the realm of international-legal considerations and
in political aims. Today we can see in the Algerian issue
that it was not just a question of problems touohing on East
Germany and the Danubian area. It is a -suriprising fact, and
may well fill with satisfaction those expellees W\ho come
from old Austria, to know tihat the plans and proposals that
were introduced by the French government toward a solut ion of the Algerian problem, approach those ideas that matured on Austrian soil between 1848 and 1918 and which
were furtiher developed by the Sudeten Germans and could
be matured in the struggle for the recognition of the right
to the homeland.
What formerly was a matter thaJt. concerned or appeared to concern only the Austrians and was understood
by the peoples and ethnic groups of the Danubian Monarchy and of the German-Polish bovder area or the Baltic
�22
SLOVAKIA
States, today has become a question of the destiny of the
free world and of Europe in particular. Africa, the Near
East, India, and in Europe the regions in which there are
still national issues this side of the iron curtain (South Tyrol), all need certain binding international-legal and constitutional-legal ideas and principles for solution and a new
order, for satisfaobion and settlement.
German e~pellees were the first to turn the attention
of the free world to this vital problem and produced the
first fruitful stimu~i. The contri'butions to thoughts on
solving the nationalities problem made by Karl Renner and
Ritter von Lodgman, Ignaz Seipel and Josef Redlich, Adolf
Fisohhof and Franz Palacky, Aurel Popovici and Heinrich
Lammasch, and, a:bove all, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
his "workshop," are today acqui:r,ing world-wide importance. It was tJhe expellees who bridged the gap between
past and present, between a territorially limited e:x!perimental station of co-living of various peoples in a State Community and the present global aspects of the question.
As Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Strauss, stated at
the Sudeten German Day in Munich, 1960, it is important
not only to proclaim a right but to examine within wihat
framework and within what higher legal order it can most
ideally be reaHzed. At this very juncture the moderated
conduct of the expellees proved a valua;ble maxim for all
Europe. There are those who never tire of painting the expellee associations ·in Germany as disturber.s of the peace,
"revengists," and nationalists. Only the reverse, however,
is true. 'Dhe expellees were the first sizeable groups among
the German people who displayed understanding for the
integration policy of Adenauer and Sohuman, who supported it and ciharacterized the formation of supra-naJtional
European arrangements as a condition for a new peaceful
order for all Europe, in particular for East Central Europe.
In the Eichstatt Declaration of 1949, in the Detmold Declaration, and in the rapidly ensuing resolutions and decisions of numerous associations - particularly the Wiesbaden Agreement between the Sudeten Germans and the
Czechs in exile - there appeared for the first time propo-
�SLOVAKIA
23
sals for a new European legal and State order within the
framework of supra-State and supra-national organizations.
And that is quite natural, too. The expellees bring from
their homeland a rich storehouse of experiences and traditions which are directed to the necessity of international
and supra-national agreements and organizations, to the
dovetailing of autonomous, State and supra.:state faci'lities,
to a common destiny and inseparability of vital communities in which different languages are spoken, with the
right to linguistic and cultural autonomy, minority rights,
and the complemenlting of territorial with personal selfadministration. In the areas where once the expellees had
lived for centuries, the national.,State idea early proved to
be problematical. The principal West European peoples
looked upon the integral national State as an ideal ever
since 1789, and retained their views into the 191:Jh Century.
Whereas in France, Germany, and Italy tJhe ideas of
the great Europeans met with tough opposition, since people simply could not imagine that portions of national sovereignty could and must be yielded, the expellees very
quickly realized that this was a viltal condition for the realizaition of their claims to recognition of the right to the
homeland and they unreservedly offered their services to
the Europe of tomorrow. For them federalism was never
a mere substrat-ificaition of the over-all State into bureaucratically administered areas of sovereignty, but was always linked to a maximum measure of self-administration
and responsibility of the lower strata. From this treasury
of experience they could and still can give Europe very
much.
In addition thereto are the temperament, spirit of enterprise, and economic adaptability of old pioneer and colonizing races. The German "economic miracle," particularly in its incipiency, needed certain attributes which the
Germans from the East possessed to a high degree. Plus
the fact, that they had nothing to lose and a new live1ihood to gain. Henice they were courageous enough to build
a new economy from the ruins. The ambition to dispel the
prejudices against those who arrived as "beggars," to
�24
SLOVAKIA
prove their ability, and not just to acquire formal political
equality but the respeot of their fellow citizens as well all this contributed to the expellees' becoming a constructive European force in the economic sphere.
Finally, one may point to their importance as conoisseurs of the Eastern peoples and political conditions of
East European life. Thus in a certain sense one can speak
of a re-colonizaJtion. IDight centuries ago the big trek began: Germans and Dutch colonists bore European civilizat ion eastwards. The progeny of these colonists came back
to the West after 1945 as ex;pellees. They did not come as
beneficiaries but brought with them as working people,
politically active leaders and the bearers of a culture, tihe
readiness to rebuild a new ·Europe. Tihey brought experience, skills, courage, and the concept of surpra..national
legal order.
One hundred years ago on
Decemlber 12, 1861 - Btshop Stephen Moyses cxf Slovakia led a delegation, of Slovaks to Emperor
Franois Jloseph to protest against
Magyarization and the oppression
of his Slovak people. The Memorandum presented the Emperor requested equa'l rights for the Slovaks and that the territory of the
Slovaks becoone a separate adminisitrative unit, that is, tihalt it become autonoonous.
anested again in 1950, and in the
beginning of 11951 placed on trial
with Bishops Vojtassak and Gojdic. The kalllgaroo court sentenced
him to life imprisonment as ail•
"enemy of the State." With amnesty in 1'961, Bi.shop Buzalka left
prison to live under surveillance
of the police at all times. Tihey
found him dead, kneeling by his
bed, hands clasped in prayer. Significant it is that even the "Katolicke Noviny" (The• Catholic
~
:IC
:IC
News) did not report the death
Bishop Michael Buzalka, Auxili- of Bishop Buzal!ka, patriot amd
ary of the Trnava Apostolic Ad- martyr for the cause of his Church
ministrature, died on Dec. 7, 'liOOl, and his Slovak people.
:IC
:IC
:IC
according to a very belated report. Born in Sviity Anton, Slov,aBishop Joseph t arsky, Titular
kia, Sept. 18, 11885, Bishop Buzal- Bishop of Tagora and apostolic adka was ordained priest July 14, ministr-ator for t he diocese of Ko1908, and consecrated Bishop in sice, Slovakia, died March 1•2,
Riome on May '1'5, 1938. He was 1962, and was buried four days
rector of the Bratislava Seminariy Iat,e r in the cathedral cr,yipt after
and, during the war, Militazy Oir- appropriate religious servwes. Bidiir.iary for the Slovak Republic. shoip Carsky was born in G!bely,
In 1•945, Bishop Buzalka was im- Slovakia, May 9, 1886, ordained
prisoned, with two other Bishops priest Jiu}y 26, 1909, and named
and many Slovak priests by ,t he bishop by the Vatican July 14,
Reds, but later released. He was 1925.
�
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Title
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1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
Publisher
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The Slovak League of America
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1962
Text
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Text
Any textual data included in the document
18
SLOVAKIA
EXPELLEES AND THE EUROPEAN IDEA
BY OTTO VON HAIB,SBUiRG
When Joseph Stalin seized upon the plan of Edward
Benes to expel the Germans from the Bohemian lands, and
when Communism expanded the idea to include the entire "Intermare" area between the Baltic and the Adriatic,
his intention was not only to do his faithful vassals a favor. All political measures adopted by Communist politicians have their place in the great plan of world revolution. The expulsion of German ethnic groups from CzechoSlovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, which
is continued in the indirect but uninterrupted flight of
Germans from the German Soviet Zone, was supposed to
render more difficult the stabi1ization of West Germany
and that of all Europe, if not hinder it altogether.
It was supposed, furthermore, to pave the way for
Communism. Moscow expected, as a consequence of the
flooding of West Germany with expellees, that an "imminent revolutionary situation" would develop. It is perhaps
Stalin's biggest disappointment after Potsdam that the
hopes he pinned on the masses of pauperized and expropriated expellees were never realized. It is in fact the greatest "miracle" that has happened in West Germany - far
greater and more meaningful than the "economic miracle"
- that the expeHees did not become the reserve army of
communism but, on the contrary, a constructive force and
the bearers of constructive thinking for all of Europe.
Moscow counted on it becoming impossible to integrate the expellees into the economy and society of West
Germany. The West German State, it figured, or West
German society would perhaps be incapable of adequately
caring for the masses of expellees housed in vast barracks. Filled with resentment and bitterness, doubtful of
a chance for return as well as of a new means of livelihood, overcome by camp psychoses and the will to destroy, the millions of expellees were expected in the eyes
of the general staff of the world revolution, to become
partisans and outriders of the Red offensive.
SLOVAKIA
19
While the West Germans were being bled white on
the modest attempt to provide for these homeless persons
or at least keeip them from starving to death, the victims
themselves were expected, as social outcasts and expellees,
to undermine legal security, prevent every form of political sta;bilization, burden the economy unendurably and
thus succumb to the whi.sperings of Communist agents.
The "solution" of the refugee problem in the Soviet
occupied zone, where they wanted to create an example of
Marxist social policy by "land reform" and the settling of
expellees as "new settlers," was supposed to entice those
expellees residing in the West likewise to become champions of Communism. Hatred of the Americans, who by
their "betrayal of humanity" were the alleged cause of all
the trouble, the rupture of national solidarity of the German people by an unbridgeaJble gap between old and new
citizens, the hopelessness of a situation from which revolution seemed but the only way out, and the classic union
of national or nationalist passions with social-revolutionary impulses to national Bolshevism - all that appeared
i.n 1945 to be a guarantee that the Communist revolution
would advance to the Rhine within a very short time, and
soon would go beyond the Rhine. It seemed, too, that irts
strongest pillars would be those who had caused their own
misery.
There was a catchword that e:xipressed everything the
Communists expected from the expellees at thait time : Macedonians. Just as pro-Bulgarian elements within Macedonia, which had become Sel'lbian in 1913, not only fought
against Serbian rule in the old homeland but became a constant revolutionary danger in their host counfu'y of Bulgaria, too, overthrowing governments, forming conspiracies,
stirring up the people and trying to implicate the State in
a policy fraught with risks, so the East Germans, the Sudetens, the Carpait·hians, Hungarian and Banat Germans
were to have formed the e:x:plosive, with its fuse in Moscow,
that would completely destroy Europe.
Many are the reasons for things haviing turned out differently, motives that coincided to give developments a turn
20
SLOVAKIA
unforeseen by Moscow. First of all was the lack of caution
by Stalin, wh.o prematurely took off his mask in the Greek
civil war; tJhen the Czech putsch of February 1948, followed by the blockade of Berlin, the Bolshevization CYf China,
and, finally, with the invasion of Korea, in this way touching
off America's reaction to his policy of permanent revolution
by the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the German
currency reform and the re-estaiblishment of a German
State.
Nor should we forget either, the sober attitude of the
American nation, which was prepared to revise dangerous
mistakes just as radically as it had once succumbed to them,
or the talents of the German people in the organizational,
technical and economic field. The rapidly widening gap in
the standard of living between people this side and the other
side of the iron curtain was also important. All this and still
more combined to cause Stalin's hopes to wither toward
the end of his life, leading to a serious crisis of Communism
between 1952 and 1956, which the West, however, did not
know how to take proper advantage of.
The ohief merit in the failure of the Benes-Stalin concept is to be attriibuted to the eX:pellees themselves, who, by
remarkable self-discipline, moderation and objectivity, refrained from any policy of daring and revenge and, with
minor exceptions, remained completely immune to Communist attempts at infiltration. They did not succumb for a
minute to the danger of becoming the "Macedonians" of
West Germany, but, instead, became the supporters of constructive European ideas.
It is one of the most significant achievements of the
expellees that t'hey have whetted the conscience of the free
peoples and continually exhorted them to self-examination.
International law, ever since the first world war, has increasingly fallen into decay, the concepts of riight and wrong
have become confused ever since they were turned over to
the propaganda apparatuses and the whim of mass passions to interpret them according to their own discretion
and misuse them for the interests of power.
In particular the motto of self-determination of peo-
SLOVAKIA
ples, even during the interpretation of the Fourteen Points
of Woodrow Wilson, was distorted beyond recognition and
actually twisted to the opposite. 'Dhe expellees have not
simply stanted at the po,i nt at which the concept was perverted and hence d~based. They related the demand for the
right of self-determination to a large extent to a critical
examination of German poLicy and to the political attitude
of ethnic groups in the period prior to the first world war
and in the thirties. They have seriously and in a thoroughgoing manner concerned themselves with the ethical motivation of the right to the homeland and have encouraged
not only the experts on international and constitutional law
in the free world, but, to an ever-growing degree, the t heologians to explore the right to the homeland in conjunction
with the right to self-determination, self-government and
self- administration, and to acquire, by so-doing, guiding
principles for a new order in Europe. In the Charter of the
Expellees we find the first results of that process of examination of conscience, of historic study, and of practical
political consideraJt.ion of the possible and attainable.
That was but the beginning. With the renouncing of
revenge and retaliation, an ethical principle was anchored
>in politics which had never before appeared with such clarity in the realm of international-legal considerations and
in political aims. Today we can see in the Algerian issue
that it was not just a question of problems touohing on East
Germany and the Danubian area. It is a -suriprising fact, and
may well fill with satisfaction those expellees W\ho come
from old Austria, to know tihat the plans and proposals that
were introduced by the French government toward a solut ion of the Algerian problem, approach those ideas that matured on Austrian soil between 1848 and 1918 and which
were furtiher developed by the Sudeten Germans and could
be matured in the struggle for the recognition of the right
to the homeland.
What formerly was a matter thaJt. concerned or appeared to concern only the Austrians and was understood
by the peoples and ethnic groups of the Danubian Monarchy and of the German-Polish bovder area or the Baltic
22
SLOVAKIA
States, today has become a question of the destiny of the
free world and of Europe in particular. Africa, the Near
East, India, and in Europe the regions in which there are
still national issues this side of the iron curtain (South Tyrol), all need certain binding international-legal and constitutional-legal ideas and principles for solution and a new
order, for satisfaobion and settlement.
German e~pellees were the first to turn the attention
of the free world to this vital problem and produced the
first fruitful stimu~i. The contri'butions to thoughts on
solving the nationalities problem made by Karl Renner and
Ritter von Lodgman, Ignaz Seipel and Josef Redlich, Adolf
Fisohhof and Franz Palacky, Aurel Popovici and Heinrich
Lammasch, and, a:bove all, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
his "workshop," are today acqui:r,ing world-wide importance. It was tJhe expellees who bridged the gap between
past and present, between a territorially limited e:x!perimental station of co-living of various peoples in a State Community and the present global aspects of the question.
As Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Strauss, stated at
the Sudeten German Day in Munich, 1960, it is important
not only to proclaim a right but to examine within wihat
framework and within what higher legal order it can most
ideally be reaHzed. At this very juncture the moderated
conduct of the expellees proved a valua;ble maxim for all
Europe. There are those who never tire of painting the expellee associations ·in Germany as disturber.s of the peace,
"revengists," and nationalists. Only the reverse, however,
is true. 'Dhe expellees were the first sizeable groups among
the German people who displayed understanding for the
integration policy of Adenauer and Sohuman, who supported it and ciharacterized the formation of supra-naJtional
European arrangements as a condition for a new peaceful
order for all Europe, in particular for East Central Europe.
In the Eichstatt Declaration of 1949, in the Detmold Declaration, and in the rapidly ensuing resolutions and decisions of numerous associations - particularly the Wiesbaden Agreement between the Sudeten Germans and the
Czechs in exile - there appeared for the first time propo-
SLOVAKIA
23
sals for a new European legal and State order within the
framework of supra-State and supra-national organizations.
And that is quite natural, too. The expellees bring from
their homeland a rich storehouse of experiences and traditions which are directed to the necessity of international
and supra-national agreements and organizations, to the
dovetailing of autonomous, State and supra.:state faci'lities,
to a common destiny and inseparability of vital communities in which different languages are spoken, with the
right to linguistic and cultural autonomy, minority rights,
and the complemenlting of territorial with personal selfadministration. In the areas where once the expellees had
lived for centuries, the national.,State idea early proved to
be problematical. The principal West European peoples
looked upon the integral national State as an ideal ever
since 1789, and retained their views into the 191:Jh Century.
Whereas in France, Germany, and Italy tJhe ideas of
the great Europeans met with tough opposition, since people simply could not imagine that portions of national sovereignty could and must be yielded, the expellees very
quickly realized that this was a viltal condition for the realizaition of their claims to recognition of the right to the
homeland and they unreservedly offered their services to
the Europe of tomorrow. For them federalism was never
a mere substrat-ificaition of the over-all State into bureaucratically administered areas of sovereignty, but was always linked to a maximum measure of self-administration
and responsibility of the lower strata. From this treasury
of experience they could and still can give Europe very
much.
In addition thereto are the temperament, spirit of enterprise, and economic adaptability of old pioneer and colonizing races. The German "economic miracle," particularly in its incipiency, needed certain attributes which the
Germans from the East possessed to a high degree. Plus
the fact, that they had nothing to lose and a new live1ihood to gain. Henice they were courageous enough to build
a new economy from the ruins. The ambition to dispel the
prejudices against those who arrived as "beggars," to
24
SLOVAKIA
prove their ability, and not just to acquire formal political
equality but the respeot of their fellow citizens as well all this contributed to the expellees' becoming a constructive European force in the economic sphere.
Finally, one may point to their importance as conoisseurs of the Eastern peoples and political conditions of
East European life. Thus in a certain sense one can speak
of a re-colonizaJtion. IDight centuries ago the big trek began: Germans and Dutch colonists bore European civilizat ion eastwards. The progeny of these colonists came back
to the West after 1945 as ex;pellees. They did not come as
beneficiaries but brought with them as working people,
politically active leaders and the bearers of a culture, tihe
readiness to rebuild a new ·Europe. Tihey brought experience, skills, courage, and the concept of surpra..national
legal order.
One hundred years ago on
Decemlber 12, 1861 - Btshop Stephen Moyses cxf Slovakia led a delegation, of Slovaks to Emperor
Franois Jloseph to protest against
Magyarization and the oppression
of his Slovak people. The Memorandum presented the Emperor requested equa'l rights for the Slovaks and that the territory of the
Slovaks becoone a separate adminisitrative unit, that is, tihalt it become autonoonous.
anested again in 1950, and in the
beginning of 11951 placed on trial
with Bishops Vojtassak and Gojdic. The kalllgaroo court sentenced
him to life imprisonment as ail•
"enemy of the State." With amnesty in 1'961, Bi.shop Buzalka left
prison to live under surveillance
of the police at all times. Tihey
found him dead, kneeling by his
bed, hands clasped in prayer. Significant it is that even the "Katolicke Noviny" (The• Catholic
~
:IC
:IC
News) did not report the death
Bishop Michael Buzalka, Auxili- of Bishop Buzal!ka, patriot amd
ary of the Trnava Apostolic Ad- martyr for the cause of his Church
ministrature, died on Dec. 7, 'liOOl, and his Slovak people.
:IC
:IC
:IC
according to a very belated report. Born in Sviity Anton, Slov,aBishop Joseph t arsky, Titular
kia, Sept. 18, 11885, Bishop Buzal- Bishop of Tagora and apostolic adka was ordained priest July 14, ministr-ator for t he diocese of Ko1908, and consecrated Bishop in sice, Slovakia, died March 1•2,
Riome on May '1'5, 1938. He was 1962, and was buried four days
rector of the Bratislava Seminariy Iat,e r in the cathedral cr,yipt after
and, during the war, Militazy Oir- appropriate religious servwes. Bidiir.iary for the Slovak Republic. shoip Carsky was born in G!bely,
In 1•945, Bishop Buzalka was im- Slovakia, May 9, 1886, ordained
prisoned, with two other Bishops priest Jiu}y 26, 1909, and named
and many Slovak priests by ,t he bishop by the Vatican July 14,
Reds, but later released. He was 1925.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Expellees and the European Idea
Description
An account of the resource
Otto von Habsburg
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 18-24
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Habsburg, Otto von, 1912-2011
Date
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March-June 1962
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https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ebc83039c98c623e2ca1b8866838a176.pdf
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Text
SLOVAKIA
25
MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON
THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D.
I
Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been
caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language.
The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper
distinction between the native or spoken language of the
Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as
we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards
t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by
the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects.
On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the
necessary caution required in scholarly works.
As a result, we find in many American symposia on the
Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is
merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half
of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of
information or reference used by American Slavists are
rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been
treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be
thoroughly acquainted with the history and development
of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages.
Before pointing out the misconceptions in American
symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the
�26
SLOVAKIA
Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a
scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural
life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only
from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views
of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an
independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality
among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted
that Slovak has been used as the language of literature
from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end
of the eighteenth century.
Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik,
Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and
looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the
main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed
the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly
methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they
arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by
the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists
and linguists.
Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have
said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history
of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign
languages in Slovak literature.
In this respect we -read not without surprise that even
the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes:
''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the
Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their
own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the
central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>.
We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary
language long before the middle of the 19th century, and
�SLOVAKIA
27
that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the
19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur,
was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the
central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the
eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the
Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more
occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >.
The reasons for this will be explained later.
Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification
of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree
with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says:
"Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary
language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and
Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>.
In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl,
admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was
only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language."
According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the
end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist
Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in
which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive
written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >.
A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison
Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who
says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written
Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local
dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when
Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However,
�28
SLOVAKIA
Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the
vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ...
The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson,
"as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly
speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) .
In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia
and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and
Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of
the Slovak literary language:
... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic
ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last
decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected
the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his
suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent
hold.
"The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry
language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants.
tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and
usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J.
This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish
a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade
of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions
not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants
with the merits, while Radl says the opposite!
All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have
mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the
Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place,
the use of sources either long before superseded by new
works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those
Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective.
In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography
leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only
four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs,
�SLOVAKIA
29
but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not
be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on
the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct
from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures.
Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own
literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century."
Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to
be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor
the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in
his literature and references the following books:
J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th
edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur
Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde
Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934.
Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook
of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not
show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign
languages which he used or in which the reader could check
Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge.
Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not
many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years
on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some
of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by
Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to
American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs.
Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could
not, however, say that any of them made his name as as
expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to
the United States.
II
LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES
Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology
and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct
�30
SLOVAKIA
from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so
clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point
of view.
After a century of clashes and discussions between
the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already
in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with
the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been
properly classified as the real and original national tongue
of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history.
The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language
not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions
common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a
spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by
the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was
codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic
peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw
to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central
position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some
Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak
language "stands grammatically and geographically in the
center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are
the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the
modern science of history, archeology and ethnography
challenges.
However, the central position of the Slovak language,
geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than
Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic.
In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating
in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con-
�SLOVAKIA
31
tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among
the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to
Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic
Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth
century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in
the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and
Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts
the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we
cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with
the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs
travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic
peoples.
Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the
Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of
their developments showed that the Slovak language never
was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m,
that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that
from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into
distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the
time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise
of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among
them and that its development cannot be identified with
that of the Czech language.
This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the
Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse
of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks
had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure
of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they
have retained their own phonological structure.
The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages
became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century,
�32
SLOVAKIA
Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned
Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University,
exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native
tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed
for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there
were two different languages ( l 3 >.
From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous
proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation,
but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech,
Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but
also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava
(founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual
Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>.
The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also
Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a
Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the
Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen
Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when
some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even
farther in stressing the differences than he did in his
book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in
preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and
became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with
the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The
great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper,
and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do
something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him
or without his patronage ( lG>.
This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak
�SLOVAKIA
33
literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did
not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his
Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially
supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from
the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted
to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The
will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >,
and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and
Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic
facts and centuries long Slovak national development.
The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language
for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes
(mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary
historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory.
One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks
and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the
time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian
cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers.
More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that
Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech
clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and
Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the
use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of
the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from
Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the
old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation
"many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and
even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling
them into Bohemia" <19 >.
Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all
Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in
s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked
�34
SLOVAKIA
to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in
literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became
clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in
Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to
the common people, that their writings could not reach the
Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained
in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed
with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary
language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature.
Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has
been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very
short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this
reform, which received its final linguistic form in the
grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar
situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was
changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the
first literary language (or language of literature) used by
Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks
rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as
a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th
century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the
Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with
Czech, adapted to local use.
During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke,
of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from
the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern
Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the
IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their
native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to
the position of a literary medium, which happened more or
less at the same time at which other central European
peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes.
On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages:
foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions ..
�SLOVAKIA
35
V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must
have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and
S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that
the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western
Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the
position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house
mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities
with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and
South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with
which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >.
III
VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS
Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech
philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject
and have been instrumental in giving us modified views
that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced
by political aspirations.
For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the
American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct
views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United
States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist,
Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940,
that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about
as great as those between the similarly related languages,
Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my
shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published
in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were
�36
SLOVAKIA
apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >.
Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination
and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice
against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From
the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is
inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and
to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units,
Czech and Slovak" <25 >.
Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the
Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings
of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which
view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent
years.
"The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia
are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any
doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its
political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must
have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the
last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >.
R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich
per
ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on
Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak
codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and
urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty
years a considera:ble number of literary and other works
were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in
Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty,
" by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >.
The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora-
�SLOVAKIA
37
dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification)
for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions
that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in
Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation
t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason
being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included.
Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he
regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had
been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction
was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the
changes which were brought about in the Slovak language
by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order
to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature.
Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with
the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him
"Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new
written form of their language for all purposes; this had
been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak
intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat
modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent
years."
Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of
Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully
accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the
orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general
pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven
itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >.
The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they
�38
SLOVAKIA
grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech
and Slovak.
"The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia,
diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia.
"The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap•
pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in
Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie,
iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point
is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where
Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which
goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the
two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is
characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since
the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of
n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary
Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this
woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not
find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants
are always softened in this position."
The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A.
Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography
than American Slavists and points out to the relation of
Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows:
"The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows
some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic
and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and
i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l
result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects
an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement
with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and
lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological
reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the
identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak
should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >.
On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair
to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known
partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S.
�SLOVAKIA
39
Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic
Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a
good account of the literature of the present century." His
Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and
Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel:
Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook
of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other
works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906)
are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has
written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students
(Pittsburgh, 1896).
IV
"MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK
AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that 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 were intended to support the political theory
of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech
philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions
which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists.
Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of
the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak
school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) ,
and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History
of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of
Slavists in 1958.
In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de-
�40
SLOVAKIA
serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the
function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth
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 d'id not apply
"Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not
withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the
Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant
minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain
it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over
a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak
is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism.
In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak
Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a
language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the
15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings."
As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's
group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists.
Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some
American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary
language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in
Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's
school."
In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains
the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia,
Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary
language and its orthography.
Mraz regards the activity which originated around
the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting
point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new
era in Slovak national life was the publication of the
Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655.
�SLOVAKIA
41
The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of
Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith
the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language,
they merely codified, in many respects, a language used
and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the
preceding period ' 31 l .
In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny,
Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the
history of the Slovak literary language according to the
languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time
of Greater Moravia. H e writes:
"Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary
language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly
before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy
of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc,
lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy
beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet
bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was
introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32).
Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho
a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language:
"The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt
times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the
formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the
literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from
,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment
towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l .
Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a
�42
SLOVAKIA
literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was
already a historical fact in Slovakia ... "
A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic
tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition
on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of
Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots
of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a
comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the
"Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic
languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the
Old Slavonic language.
As a result of this developmen t the relation between the
two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now
officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into
Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they
have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians
and philologists to recognize their victory.
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42.
2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De-
partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10.
3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin
ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954.
4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948;
p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the
Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961.
5. ]bidem: p . 34'2.
6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52.
7. ]bidem: p . 4194.
8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp.
258, 263.
9. ,pp. 36-3'9.
l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp.
173-197.
�SLOVAKIA
43
11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939.
12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm.
Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book
S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota.
13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti
wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l
etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603).
141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo•
venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates
from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that
time.
15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a
Vltavou, pp. 228-234.
116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30.
17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495.
18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36.
19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491.
20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the
opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526)
he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was
a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in
the Habsburg Monarchy.
2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo•
wianskych, p. 71.
22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat
and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as
southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav:
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387.
23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic
World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto
v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906.
24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14.
25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko
Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961.
.26. Op. cit., p. 71.
27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation
of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review,
Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961.
28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346.
29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800.
30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4,
Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut.
31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108.
32. Op. cit., p. 5.
~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201.
�44
SLOVAKIA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian
AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953.
Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp.
143-1:60.
Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary
Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic
and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611).
Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins
Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817.
Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens
in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940.
Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952.
On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton
a.nd Co ., 1957.
Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956
Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516.
A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in
the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952.
De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and
Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31.
,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7,
Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks.
Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935.
Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm
in the German languag,e.
Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi
di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly
:r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples.
Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail.
Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y
wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view.
Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944.
Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota
Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9.
Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952.
·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959.
1
�SLOVAKIA
45
Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942.
This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953.
J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du·
tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366.
Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949.
~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central
Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960.
Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and
East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4,
l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica
No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956.
Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint
from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4,
Montreal, 1960.
A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley,
Ca.Jiif., lt956.
La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et
est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>.
Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99.
Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t
roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3.
Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of
Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books
on Pa.n-Slavism .
Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh
s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa.,
1939.
Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930.
New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941.
Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A
selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group.
Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic
Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960.
A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History,
Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~.
Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint
from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929.
Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind
J . M. Kirschbaum.
Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest
F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism
and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view.
Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis
1848, Harlem, 1931.
Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York-
T-0ronito, 1937.
�SLOVAKIA
46
Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry,
New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning,
Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc.
Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of
Florence, 1,959.
Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les
Iles d'Or. 11955.
La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale,
Paris, 11952.
Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A
History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and
professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The
S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the
best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in
Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse
der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888.
Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956.
Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary,
Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908.
Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London,
119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned
.i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends.
Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961.
Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach
alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten,
Ofifen, 1826.
Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa.,
1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D.
Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the
Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y.
Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944.
Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl.
Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech.
Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors
et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913.
Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik
language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175,
208, 245).
Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 .,
Scra1nton, Pa., 1900.
Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:..
und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002.
�SLOVAKIA
47
Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions,
c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s
Olf Slovak ortgin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES
iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937.
l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3.
Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947.
Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom,
Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956.
Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J.
Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950.
Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939.
Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il.
Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom
Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008.
Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest,
1887.
Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov,
'!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906.
Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest,
1890.
[)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957.
Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a,
Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3.
Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu,
Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll.
Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852.
Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850.
Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8.
,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8.
Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910,
Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum
I, 19416-1947.
Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku,
MGU, 11949.
Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka.
Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo
Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'.
Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951.
Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca
Ilil, 1'9411.
Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946.
Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939.
Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418.
Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_
Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich,
Warszaiwa, li9154·.
1
�48
SLOVAKIA
Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956.
Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929.
Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava,
1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320.
Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu
literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940.
Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni,
Bratislava, 194<8.
Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny,
Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8.
Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935.
l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky,
ViIII, 1922.
Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947.
Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy
pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958.
Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV,
1942.
Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a
umeni, Bratislava, 1948.
Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava,
1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation).
Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490.
Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958.
Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900.
Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1.
Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940.
Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945.
Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe
pfitomne, Praha, 1937.
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958.
Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich,
W,arszarwa, 1'956.
Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920.
0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928.
Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846.
Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846.
Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943.
'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58.
K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959.
�49
SLOVAKIA
Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom
narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh
Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956.
Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku,
1Bratislava, 1926.
Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i,
Bratislava, 1956.
Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38.
VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5.
Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923.
Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957.
Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych,
OMF, 1935.
Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he
pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14.
llt!
llt!
llt!
of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I
n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of
Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr.
M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the
The meeting was early in
Slovak Callholic Federation of
ruary.
Amenica, traveled to Rome early
:!€!
llt!
:!€!
Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans
Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will
successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also
examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the
of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent
of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d
cians.
Methodius to the ancient homeland
llt!
llt!
llt!
According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963,
(Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with
was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The
in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a
it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which
And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the
ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half
the amount is already pledged.
te·n being displayed.
Feb-I'
I
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of
The Holy See, early in Apr:I,
Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of
bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14,
1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of
the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer.
He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f
the Slovak League of America,
1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph
KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he
Slovaks in England, parUoolarly
for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending
to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years
prior to that time.
�
SLOVAKIA
25
MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON
THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D.
I
Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been
caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language.
The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper
distinction between the native or spoken language of the
Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as
we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards
t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by
the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects.
On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the
necessary caution required in scholarly works.
As a result, we find in many American symposia on the
Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is
merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half
of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of
information or reference used by American Slavists are
rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been
treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be
thoroughly acquainted with the history and development
of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages.
Before pointing out the misconceptions in American
symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the
�26
SLOVAKIA
Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a
scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural
life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only
from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views
of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an
independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality
among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted
that Slovak has been used as the language of literature
from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end
of the eighteenth century.
Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik,
Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and
looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the
main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed
the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly
methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they
arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by
the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists
and linguists.
Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have
said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history
of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign
languages in Slovak literature.
In this respect we -read not without surprise that even
the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes:
''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the
Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their
own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the
central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>.
We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary
language long before the middle of the 19th century, and
�SLOVAKIA
27
that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the
19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur,
was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the
central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the
eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the
Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more
occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >.
The reasons for this will be explained later.
Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification
of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree
with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says:
"Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary
language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and
Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>.
In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl,
admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was
only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language."
According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the
end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist
Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in
which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive
written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >.
A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison
Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who
says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written
Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local
dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when
Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However,
�28
SLOVAKIA
Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the
vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ...
The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson,
"as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly
speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) .
In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia
and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and
Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of
the Slovak literary language:
... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic
ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last
decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected
the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his
suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent
hold.
"The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry
language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants.
tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and
usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J.
This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish
a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade
of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions
not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants
with the merits, while Radl says the opposite!
All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have
mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the
Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place,
the use of sources either long before superseded by new
works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those
Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective.
In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography
leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only
four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs,
�SLOVAKIA
29
but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not
be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on
the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct
from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures.
Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own
literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century."
Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to
be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor
the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in
his literature and references the following books:
J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th
edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur
Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde
Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934.
Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook
of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not
show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign
languages which he used or in which the reader could check
Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge.
Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not
many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years
on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some
of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by
Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to
American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs.
Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could
not, however, say that any of them made his name as as
expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to
the United States.
II
LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES
Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology
and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct
�30
SLOVAKIA
from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so
clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point
of view.
After a century of clashes and discussions between
the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already
in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with
the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been
properly classified as the real and original national tongue
of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history.
The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language
not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions
common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a
spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by
the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was
codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic
peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw
to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central
position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some
Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak
language "stands grammatically and geographically in the
center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are
the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the
modern science of history, archeology and ethnography
challenges.
However, the central position of the Slovak language,
geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than
Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic.
In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating
in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con-
�SLOVAKIA
31
tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among
the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to
Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic
Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth
century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in
the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and
Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts
the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we
cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with
the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs
travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic
peoples.
Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the
Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of
their developments showed that the Slovak language never
was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m,
that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that
from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into
distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the
time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise
of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among
them and that its development cannot be identified with
that of the Czech language.
This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the
Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse
of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks
had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure
of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they
have retained their own phonological structure.
The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages
became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century,
�32
SLOVAKIA
Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned
Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University,
exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native
tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed
for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there
were two different languages ( l 3 >.
From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous
proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation,
but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech,
Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but
also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava
(founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual
Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>.
The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also
Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a
Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the
Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen
Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when
some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even
farther in stressing the differences than he did in his
book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in
preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and
became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with
the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The
great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper,
and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do
something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him
or without his patronage ( lG>.
This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak
�SLOVAKIA
33
literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did
not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his
Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially
supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from
the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted
to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The
will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >,
and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and
Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic
facts and centuries long Slovak national development.
The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language
for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes
(mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary
historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory.
One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks
and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the
time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian
cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers.
More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that
Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech
clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and
Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the
use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of
the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from
Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the
old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation
"many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and
even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling
them into Bohemia" <19 >.
Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all
Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in
s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked
�34
SLOVAKIA
to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in
literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became
clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in
Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to
the common people, that their writings could not reach the
Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained
in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed
with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary
language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature.
Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has
been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very
short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this
reform, which received its final linguistic form in the
grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar
situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was
changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the
first literary language (or language of literature) used by
Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks
rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as
a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th
century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the
Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with
Czech, adapted to local use.
During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke,
of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from
the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern
Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the
IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their
native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to
the position of a literary medium, which happened more or
less at the same time at which other central European
peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes.
On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages:
foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions ..
�SLOVAKIA
35
V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must
have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and
S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that
the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western
Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the
position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house
mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities
with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and
South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with
which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >.
III
VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS
Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech
philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject
and have been instrumental in giving us modified views
that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced
by political aspirations.
For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the
American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct
views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United
States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist,
Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940,
that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about
as great as those between the similarly related languages,
Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my
shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published
in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were
�36
SLOVAKIA
apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >.
Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination
and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice
against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From
the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is
inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and
to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units,
Czech and Slovak" <25 >.
Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the
Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings
of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which
view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent
years.
"The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia
are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any
doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its
political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must
have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the
last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >.
R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich
per
ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on
Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak
codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and
urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty
years a considera:ble number of literary and other works
were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in
Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty,
" by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >.
The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora-
�SLOVAKIA
37
dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification)
for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions
that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in
Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation
t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason
being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included.
Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he
regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had
been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction
was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the
changes which were brought about in the Slovak language
by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order
to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature.
Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with
the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him
"Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new
written form of their language for all purposes; this had
been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak
intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat
modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent
years."
Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of
Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully
accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the
orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general
pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven
itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >.
The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they
�38
SLOVAKIA
grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech
and Slovak.
"The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia,
diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia.
"The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap•
pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in
Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie,
iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point
is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where
Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which
goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the
two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is
characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since
the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of
n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary
Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this
woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not
find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants
are always softened in this position."
The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A.
Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography
than American Slavists and points out to the relation of
Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows:
"The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows
some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic
and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and
i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l
result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects
an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement
with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and
lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological
reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the
identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak
should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >.
On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair
to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known
partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S.
�SLOVAKIA
39
Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic
Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a
good account of the literature of the present century." His
Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and
Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel:
Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook
of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other
works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906)
are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has
written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students
(Pittsburgh, 1896).
IV
"MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK
AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that 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 were intended to support the political theory
of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech
philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions
which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists.
Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of
the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak
school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) ,
and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History
of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of
Slavists in 1958.
In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de-
�40
SLOVAKIA
serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the
function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth
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 d'id not apply
"Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not
withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the
Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant
minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain
it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over
a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak
is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism.
In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak
Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a
language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the
15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings."
As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's
group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists.
Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some
American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary
language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in
Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's
school."
In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains
the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia,
Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary
language and its orthography.
Mraz regards the activity which originated around
the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting
point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new
era in Slovak national life was the publication of the
Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655.
�SLOVAKIA
41
The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of
Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith
the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language,
they merely codified, in many respects, a language used
and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the
preceding period ' 31 l .
In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny,
Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the
history of the Slovak literary language according to the
languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time
of Greater Moravia. H e writes:
"Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary
language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly
before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy
of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc,
lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy
beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet
bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was
introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32).
Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho
a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language:
"The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt
times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the
formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the
literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from
,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment
towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l .
Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a
�42
SLOVAKIA
literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was
already a historical fact in Slovakia ... "
A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic
tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition
on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of
Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots
of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a
comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the
"Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic
languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the
Old Slavonic language.
As a result of this developmen t the relation between the
two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now
officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into
Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they
have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians
and philologists to recognize their victory.
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42.
2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De-
partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10.
3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin
ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954.
4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948;
p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the
Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961.
5. ]bidem: p . 34'2.
6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52.
7. ]bidem: p . 4194.
8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp.
258, 263.
9. ,pp. 36-3'9.
l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp.
173-197.
�SLOVAKIA
43
11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939.
12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm.
Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book
S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota.
13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti
wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l
etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603).
141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo•
venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates
from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that
time.
15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a
Vltavou, pp. 228-234.
116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30.
17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495.
18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36.
19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491.
20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the
opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526)
he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was
a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in
the Habsburg Monarchy.
2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo•
wianskych, p. 71.
22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat
and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as
southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav:
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387.
23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic
World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto
v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906.
24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14.
25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko
Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961.
.26. Op. cit., p. 71.
27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation
of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review,
Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961.
28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346.
29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800.
30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4,
Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut.
31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108.
32. Op. cit., p. 5.
~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201.
�44
SLOVAKIA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian
AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953.
Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp.
143-1:60.
Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary
Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic
and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611).
Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins
Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817.
Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens
in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940.
Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952.
On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton
a.nd Co ., 1957.
Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956
Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516.
A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in
the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952.
De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and
Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31.
,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7,
Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks.
Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935.
Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm
in the German languag,e.
Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi
di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly
:r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples.
Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail.
Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y
wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view.
Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944.
Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota
Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9.
Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952.
·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959.
1
�SLOVAKIA
45
Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942.
This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953.
J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du·
tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366.
Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949.
~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central
Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960.
Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and
East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4,
l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica
No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956.
Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint
from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4,
Montreal, 1960.
A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley,
Ca.Jiif., lt956.
La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et
est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>.
Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99.
Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t
roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3.
Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of
Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books
on Pa.n-Slavism .
Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh
s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa.,
1939.
Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930.
New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941.
Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A
selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group.
Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic
Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960.
A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History,
Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~.
Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint
from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929.
Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind
J . M. Kirschbaum.
Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest
F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism
and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view.
Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis
1848, Harlem, 1931.
Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York-
T-0ronito, 1937.
�SLOVAKIA
46
Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry,
New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning,
Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc.
Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of
Florence, 1,959.
Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les
Iles d'Or. 11955.
La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale,
Paris, 11952.
Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A
History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and
professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The
S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the
best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in
Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse
der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888.
Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956.
Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary,
Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908.
Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London,
119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned
.i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends.
Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961.
Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach
alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten,
Ofifen, 1826.
Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa.,
1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D.
Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the
Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y.
Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944.
Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl.
Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech.
Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors
et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913.
Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik
language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175,
208, 245).
Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 .,
Scra1nton, Pa., 1900.
Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:..
und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002.
�SLOVAKIA
47
Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions,
c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s
Olf Slovak ortgin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES
iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937.
l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3.
Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947.
Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom,
Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956.
Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J.
Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950.
Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939.
Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il.
Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom
Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008.
Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest,
1887.
Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov,
'!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906.
Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest,
1890.
[)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957.
Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a,
Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3.
Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu,
Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll.
Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852.
Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850.
Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8.
,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8.
Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910,
Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum
I, 19416-1947.
Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku,
MGU, 11949.
Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka.
Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo
Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'.
Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951.
Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca
Ilil, 1'9411.
Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946.
Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939.
Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418.
Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_
Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich,
Warszaiwa, li9154·.
1
�48
SLOVAKIA
Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956.
Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929.
Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava,
1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320.
Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu
literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940.
Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni,
Bratislava, 194<8.
Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny,
Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8.
Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935.
l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky,
ViIII, 1922.
Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947.
Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy
pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958.
Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV,
1942.
Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a
umeni, Bratislava, 1948.
Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava,
1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation).
Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490.
Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958.
Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900.
Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1.
Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940.
Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945.
Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe
pfitomne, Praha, 1937.
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958.
Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich,
W,arszarwa, 1'956.
Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920.
0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928.
Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846.
Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846.
Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943.
'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58.
K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959.
�49
SLOVAKIA
Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom
narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh
Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956.
Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku,
1Bratislava, 1926.
Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i,
Bratislava, 1956.
Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38.
VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5.
Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923.
Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957.
Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych,
OMF, 1935.
Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he
pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14.
llt!
llt!
llt!
of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I
n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of
Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr.
M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the
The meeting was early in
Slovak Callholic Federation of
ruary.
Amenica, traveled to Rome early
:!€!
llt!
:!€!
Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans
Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will
successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also
examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the
of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent
of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d
cians.
Methodius to the ancient homeland
llt!
llt!
llt!
According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963,
(Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with
was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The
in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a
it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which
And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the
ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half
the amount is already pledged.
te·n being displayed.
Feb-I'
I
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of
The Holy See, early in Apr:I,
Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of
bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14,
1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of
the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer.
He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f
the Slovak League of America,
1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph
KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he
Slovaks in England, parUoolarly
for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending
to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years
prior to that time.
�
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SLOVAKIA
25
MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON
THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D.
I
Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been
caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language.
The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper
distinction between the native or spoken language of the
Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as
we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards
t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by
the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects.
On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the
necessary caution required in scholarly works.
As a result, we find in many American symposia on the
Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is
merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half
of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of
information or reference used by American Slavists are
rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been
treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be
thoroughly acquainted with the history and development
of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages.
Before pointing out the misconceptions in American
symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the
26
SLOVAKIA
Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a
scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural
life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only
from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views
of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an
independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality
among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted
that Slovak has been used as the language of literature
from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end
of the eighteenth century.
Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik,
Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and
looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the
main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed
the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly
methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they
arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by
the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists
and linguists.
Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have
said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history
of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign
languages in Slovak literature.
In this respect we -read not without surprise that even
the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes:
''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the
Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their
own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the
central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>.
We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary
language long before the middle of the 19th century, and
SLOVAKIA
27
that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the
19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur,
was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the
central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the
eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the
Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more
occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >.
The reasons for this will be explained later.
Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification
of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree
with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says:
"Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary
language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and
Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>.
In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl,
admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was
only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language."
According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the
end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist
Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in
which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive
written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >.
A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison
Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who
says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written
Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local
dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when
Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However,
28
SLOVAKIA
Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the
vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ...
The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson,
"as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly
speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) .
In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia
and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and
Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of
the Slovak literary language:
... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic
ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last
decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected
the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his
suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent
hold.
"The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry
language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants.
tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and
usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J.
This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish
a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade
of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions
not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants
with the merits, while Radl says the opposite!
All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have
mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the
Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place,
the use of sources either long before superseded by new
works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those
Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective.
In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography
leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only
four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs,
SLOVAKIA
29
but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not
be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on
the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct
from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures.
Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own
literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century."
Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to
be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor
the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in
his literature and references the following books:
J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th
edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur
Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde
Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934.
Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook
of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not
show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign
languages which he used or in which the reader could check
Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge.
Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not
many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years
on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some
of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by
Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to
American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs.
Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could
not, however, say that any of them made his name as as
expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to
the United States.
II
LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES
Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology
and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct
30
SLOVAKIA
from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so
clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point
of view.
After a century of clashes and discussions between
the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already
in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with
the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been
properly classified as the real and original national tongue
of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history.
The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language
not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions
common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a
spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by
the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was
codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic
peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw
to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central
position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some
Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak
language "stands grammatically and geographically in the
center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are
the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the
modern science of history, archeology and ethnography
challenges.
However, the central position of the Slovak language,
geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than
Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic.
In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating
in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con-
SLOVAKIA
31
tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among
the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to
Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic
Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth
century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in
the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and
Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts
the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we
cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with
the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs
travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic
peoples.
Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the
Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of
their developments showed that the Slovak language never
was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m,
that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that
from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into
distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the
time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise
of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among
them and that its development cannot be identified with
that of the Czech language.
This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the
Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse
of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks
had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure
of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they
have retained their own phonological structure.
The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages
became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century,
32
SLOVAKIA
Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned
Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University,
exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native
tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed
for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there
were two different languages ( l 3 >.
From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous
proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation,
but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech,
Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but
also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava
(founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual
Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>.
The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also
Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a
Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the
Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen
Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when
some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even
farther in stressing the differences than he did in his
book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in
preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and
became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with
the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The
great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper,
and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do
something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him
or without his patronage ( lG>.
This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak
SLOVAKIA
33
literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did
not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his
Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially
supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from
the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted
to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The
will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >,
and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and
Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic
facts and centuries long Slovak national development.
The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language
for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes
(mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary
historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory.
One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks
and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the
time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian
cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers.
More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that
Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech
clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and
Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the
use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of
the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from
Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the
old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation
"many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and
even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling
them into Bohemia" <19 >.
Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all
Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in
s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked
34
SLOVAKIA
to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in
literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became
clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in
Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to
the common people, that their writings could not reach the
Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained
in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed
with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary
language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature.
Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has
been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very
short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this
reform, which received its final linguistic form in the
grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar
situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was
changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the
first literary language (or language of literature) used by
Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks
rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as
a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th
century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the
Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with
Czech, adapted to local use.
During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke,
of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from
the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern
Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the
IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their
native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to
the position of a literary medium, which happened more or
less at the same time at which other central European
peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes.
On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages:
foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions ..
SLOVAKIA
35
V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must
have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and
S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that
the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western
Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the
position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house
mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities
with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and
South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with
which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >.
III
VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS
Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech
philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject
and have been instrumental in giving us modified views
that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced
by political aspirations.
For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the
American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct
views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United
States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist,
Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940,
that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about
as great as those between the similarly related languages,
Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my
shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published
in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were
36
SLOVAKIA
apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >.
Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination
and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice
against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From
the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is
inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and
to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units,
Czech and Slovak" <25 >.
Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the
Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings
of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which
view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent
years.
"The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia
are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any
doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its
political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must
have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the
last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >.
R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich
per
ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on
Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak
codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and
urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty
years a considera:ble number of literary and other works
were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in
Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty,
" by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >.
The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora-
SLOVAKIA
37
dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification)
for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions
that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in
Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation
t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason
being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included.
Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he
regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had
been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction
was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the
changes which were brought about in the Slovak language
by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order
to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature.
Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with
the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him
"Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new
written form of their language for all purposes; this had
been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak
intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat
modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent
years."
Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of
Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully
accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the
orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general
pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven
itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >.
The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they
38
SLOVAKIA
grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech
and Slovak.
"The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia,
diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia.
"The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap•
pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in
Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie,
iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point
is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where
Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which
goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the
two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is
characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since
the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of
n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary
Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this
woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not
find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants
are always softened in this position."
The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A.
Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography
than American Slavists and points out to the relation of
Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows:
"The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows
some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic
and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and
i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l
result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects
an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement
with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and
lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological
reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the
identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak
should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >.
On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair
to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known
partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S.
SLOVAKIA
39
Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic
Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a
good account of the literature of the present century." His
Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and
Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel:
Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook
of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other
works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906)
are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has
written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students
(Pittsburgh, 1896).
IV
"MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK
AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE
From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that 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 were intended to support the political theory
of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech
philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions
which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists.
Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of
the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak
school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) ,
and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History
of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of
Slavists in 1958.
In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de-
40
SLOVAKIA
serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the
function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth
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 d'id not apply
"Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not
withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the
Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant
minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain
it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over
a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak
is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism.
In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak
Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a
language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the
15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings."
As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's
group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists.
Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some
American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary
language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in
Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's
school."
In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains
the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia,
Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary
language and its orthography.
Mraz regards the activity which originated around
the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting
point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new
era in Slovak national life was the publication of the
Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655.
SLOVAKIA
41
The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of
Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith
the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language,
they merely codified, in many respects, a language used
and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the
preceding period ' 31 l .
In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny,
Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the
history of the Slovak literary language according to the
languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time
of Greater Moravia. H e writes:
"Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary
language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly
before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy
of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc,
lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy
beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet
bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was
introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32).
Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho
a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language:
"The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt
times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the
formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the
literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from
,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment
towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l .
Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a
42
SLOVAKIA
literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was
already a historical fact in Slovakia ... "
A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic
tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition
on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of
Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots
of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a
comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the
"Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic
languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the
Old Slavonic language.
As a result of this developmen t the relation between the
two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now
officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into
Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they
have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians
and philologists to recognize their victory.
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42.
2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De-
partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10.
3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin
ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954.
4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948;
p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the
Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961.
5. ]bidem: p . 34'2.
6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52.
7. ]bidem: p . 4194.
8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp.
258, 263.
9. ,pp. 36-3'9.
l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp.
173-197.
SLOVAKIA
43
11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939.
12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm.
Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book
S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota.
13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti
wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l
etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603).
141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo•
venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates
from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that
time.
15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a
Vltavou, pp. 228-234.
116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30.
17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495.
18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36.
19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491.
20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the
opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526)
he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was
a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in
the Habsburg Monarchy.
2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo•
wianskych, p. 71.
22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat
and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as
southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav:
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387.
23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic
World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto
v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906.
24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14.
25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko
Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961.
.26. Op. cit., p. 71.
27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation
of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review,
Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961.
28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346.
29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800.
30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4,
Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut.
31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108.
32. Op. cit., p. 5.
~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201.
44
SLOVAKIA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian
AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953.
Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp.
143-1:60.
Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary
Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic
and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611).
Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins
Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817.
Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens
in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940.
Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952.
On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton
a.nd Co ., 1957.
Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956
Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516.
A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in
the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952.
De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and
Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31.
,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7,
Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks.
Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935.
Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm
in the German languag,e.
Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi
di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly
:r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples.
Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail.
Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y
wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view.
Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944.
Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota
Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9.
Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952.
·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959.
1
SLOVAKIA
45
Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942.
This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953.
J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du·
tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366.
Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949.
~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central
Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960.
Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and
East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4,
l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica
No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956.
Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint
from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4,
Montreal, 1960.
A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley,
Ca.Jiif., lt956.
La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et
est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>.
Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99.
Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t
roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3.
Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of
Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books
on Pa.n-Slavism .
Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh
s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa.,
1939.
Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930.
New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941.
Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A
selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group.
Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic
Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960.
A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History,
Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~.
Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint
from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929.
Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind
J . M. Kirschbaum.
Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest
F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism
and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view.
Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis
1848, Harlem, 1931.
Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York-
T-0ronito, 1937.
SLOVAKIA
46
Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry,
New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning,
Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc.
Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of
Florence, 1,959.
Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les
Iles d'Or. 11955.
La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale,
Paris, 11952.
Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A
History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and
professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The
S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the
best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in
Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse
der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888.
Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956.
Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary,
Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908.
Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London,
119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned
.i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends.
Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961.
Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach
alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten,
Ofifen, 1826.
Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa.,
1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D.
Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the
Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y.
Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944.
Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl.
Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech.
Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors
et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913.
Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik
language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175,
208, 245).
Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 .,
Scra1nton, Pa., 1900.
Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:..
und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002.
SLOVAKIA
47
Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions,
c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s
Olf Slovak ortgin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES
iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937.
l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3.
Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947.
Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom,
Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956.
Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J.
Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950.
Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939.
Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il.
Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom
Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008.
Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest,
1887.
Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov,
'!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906.
Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest,
1890.
[)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957.
Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a,
Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3.
Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu,
Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll.
Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852.
Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850.
Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8.
,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8.
Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910,
Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum
I, 19416-1947.
Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku,
MGU, 11949.
Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka.
Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo
Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'.
Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951.
Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca
Ilil, 1'9411.
Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946.
Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939.
Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418.
Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_
Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich,
Warszaiwa, li9154·.
1
48
SLOVAKIA
Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956.
Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929.
Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava,
1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320.
Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu
literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940.
Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni,
Bratislava, 194<8.
Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny,
Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8.
Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935.
l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936.
Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky,
ViIII, 1922.
Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947.
Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy
pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958.
Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV,
1942.
Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a
umeni, Bratislava, 1948.
Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava,
1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation).
Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490.
Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958.
Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900.
Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1.
Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940.
Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945.
Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe
pfitomne, Praha, 1937.
Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958.
Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich,
W,arszarwa, 1'956.
Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920.
0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928.
Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846.
Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846.
Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943.
'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58.
K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959.
49
SLOVAKIA
Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom
narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh
Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956.
Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku,
1Bratislava, 1926.
Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i,
Bratislava, 1956.
Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38.
VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5.
Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923.
Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957.
Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych,
OMF, 1935.
Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he
pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14.
llt!
llt!
llt!
of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I
n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of
Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr.
M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the
The meeting was early in
Slovak Callholic Federation of
ruary.
Amenica, traveled to Rome early
:!€!
llt!
:!€!
Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans
Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will
successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also
examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the
of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent
of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d
cians.
Methodius to the ancient homeland
llt!
llt!
llt!
According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963,
(Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with
was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The
in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a
it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which
And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the
ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half
the amount is already pledged.
te·n being displayed.
Feb-I'
I
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
)lg
Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of
The Holy See, early in Apr:I,
Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of
bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14,
1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of
the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer.
He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f
the Slovak League of America,
1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph
KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he
Slovaks in England, parUoolarly
for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending
to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years
prior to that time.
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
Misconceptions of American Slavists on the Slovak Language
Description
An account of the resource
Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D.
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 25-49
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 1962
SNK
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/092da258dd8160b010134cbdf02ee22f.pdf
8cf90adf07b58aab37e5d3e0e3a71bcc
PDF Text
Text
50
SLOVAKIA
DEFENSE AWNE IS NOT ENOUGH
By Ferdinand Durcansky
It is a historical fact that the Soviet Imperium
would have collapsed in the course of the second world
war, without the military and economic support of America. At the end of the war the USA was still in a position - due to this active support - to emphasize America's political designs and put them into effect. Proof
thereto lies in Stalin's having to withdraw his troops
from Iran in 1946 at America's behest, although such a
move by no means tallied with Communist strategy.
U. S. political, economic and, a:bove all, military superiority was so impressive and was so highly regarded
by Soviet leaders that even at the 1955 Geneva Conference they dared not show their real hand on the question of Germany's partition. To a certain extent this
power relationship seems to have changed in favor of
the Soviet Imperium. Russia, formerly one of the seven
Great Powers, has meanwhile become one of the two
World Powers, and now controls the eastern half of
Europe, plus the most important areas of the Euro-Asiatic sphere.
At the moment the great European Powers alone
would hardly be in a position effectively to resist the
Kremlin's political pressure. Even America, despite its
costly system of defense, feels itself threatened. This
e~lains why Khrushchev today feels he can simply refuse to discuss German reunification if it does not ta:ke
place the way he thinks it should.
The power complex of the Soviet Union has become
so mighty that Khrushchev periodically threatens, hoping
he will intimidate the allies of the United States and
thereby weaken Western unity. This potential strength
harbors the temptation to superimpose, even on the peoples of the still free world, the political will of the Kremlin.
In any case we must reckon with the fact, that the
men in the saddle in Moscow have made preparations for
achieving world domination as called for by the Commu-
�SLOVAKIA
51
nist ideology. The Russians have reached this position in
less than twenty years, a status that is not only the expression of their own endeavors of military or economic
strength, but for the most part the outcome of faulty
Western policy. A continuation of such policy would stabilize the failures of the West and bring aJbout additional
failures, a fact that should serve as a cogent warning to
all Europe.
Just how did this political and ideological Soviet
Russian gain come about? Is it possible that Communist
ideology and, above all, its practical application, is much
more progressive than our economic and social order?
Is it perhaps more in keeping with over-all human developments than ours, as the Kremlin rulers maintain?
Is State capitalism more enriching and better for the
people in the East than the freedom-loving order of the
Western world?
Facts refute the Communist theses. The basis of our
social order is freedom with its ensuing initiative of the
individual in all realms of human existence. The West
is certainly not poor in ideas. We have both ideas and
principles to offer Communism, which are effective not
only in the West but even in the East. The suppressed
peoples affirm these values. But our methods are wrong.
Western policy refuses to look upon the ideological and
political offensive of world Communism as something
whole and indivisible, and preoccupies itself with only
partial problems and partial aspects.
Tension Is Mainly Political
Too little attention is given to the fact that almost
all the moral and ethical values that form the vital
basis of the civilized nations of Europe are rejected by
the Soviets. The leaders of the Soviet Union even regard, among other factors, the principles of international law as non-<binding for themselves. Every treaty
concluded with the Kremlin is thus made suspect by a
"Clausula rebus sic stantibus." An international treaty is only considered valid as long as it does not contra-
�52
SLOVAKIA
diet the interests of the class struggle. Nor is it an exaggeration to state that the agreements made with · the
Kremlin are scarcely worth more than the paper they are
printed on.
Every treaty signed with the Soviets constitutes a
disadvantage for the free world, which it excludes from
certain actions and possibilities and does not obligate the
Russians since they feel themselves dispensed from all
erstwhile, generally valid, moral-legal maxims. Such principles, emanating from Western culture, contradict Marxist-Leninist teachings. The Soviets behave as if they had
never assumed an obligation, a circumstance proven by
t heir disregard for the treaties of Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, and London. Relations between the free world and
the east cannot, therefore, be regarded as a normal nationally-binding relationship based on the principles of
international law, because the main concern is a question
of power.
The behavior of the West toward the East Block
has, nevertheless, been based at all times on the principles:
and forms of classical foreign policy and diplomacy. In
all differences of opinion and artifically trumped up crises,
measures and methods are applied that scarcely differ
from those employed during the periods of the Vienna
Congress. The results of this conservative force behind
Communist hunger for power are judged solely from the
aspect of momentary security and military potential. To
be sure, a number of Western political leaders have realized that the conflict is an ideological one, but they believe the controversy can be resolved by competing in the
field of propaganda. Even these far-sighted statesmen,
politicians, and publicists fail to see that the tension between East and West represents a political struggle. Cer tainly it has an iedological character with which it is inextricably bound.
The Communists on the other hand leave no doubt
that they are concerned with a whole. When they speak
of a socialist society valid for the world of today they
mean not only production patterns, State order and insti-
�SLOVAKIA
53
tutions, but the intention of annihilating all values that
we possess and that form the basis of our Christian-Western culture, and of replacing them by their ideas and
patterns.
We are actually witnesses of a great historical attempt to replace fre edom throughout the world with slavery. Millions of independent people are to be reduced to
dependence and coercion. In this very century a decision
will be made as to whether Russia is ruble to realize its
plan - World Communism - and destroy the Christian"\Vestern culture, for, without crushing it, Bolshevism cannot get a foothold in these countries. It is thus a question,
whether we value our culture highly enough ourselves
and are resolved to fight for its preservation, or whether
we want to yield to despotism step by step to make room
for a false culture that levels off and nullifies the personality.
Soviet Russia has forced this alternative upon us
and it would be sheer suicide to evade the struggle. The
ensuing political consequences would be of immeasurable
importance and decisive for our future destiny. If it were
only a question of distribution of power between Moscow
and Washington, each of us - each nation, each people,
each stratum of society - would have the right and the
possibility to decide freely and, after consideration of individual interests, either to choose the friendship and alliance of the one or the other, or to remain neutral.
Basic Values Are At Stake
In our century, however, the matter is quite different. The traditional political struggle, which dealt with
the acquisition of foreign territories, colonies and trade
and customs was, with linguistically dependent national
cultural propaganda, and, with competition toward the
opening up of world markets, is a thing of the past. It
means that if people today demand the reunification of
Germany, the freedom of the Slovaks, Hungarians, Rumanians, of the Baltic or other oppressed peoples, this is
not done in the interest of the United States of America,
�54
SLOVAKIA
and does not foresee therein the recognition of any claim
to U. S. leadership and to strengthening U. S. policy, but
that the people concerned become a simple co-combatant
in a struggle for the preservation of our values, which
are to remain the basis of human coexistence even in the
future. When we fight against Communism and, hence,
against the Soviet Union, we do not do so in the interest
of so-called capitalists, but in the interest of our indivisible social order and in the struggle against the enslavement of our progeny.
The fact has been cited in the September 1960 issue
of Der Europaische Osten that World War III has already begun. For the time being it will be carried out on
the not insignificant level of propaganda. To be sure the
means employed, such as radio, television, press cinema,
and literature, are less frightening than those of military,
yet they are powerful and effective. Since the Soviets are
resolved to impose their system on the entire world, it
would be dangerous shortsightedness to believe that in
the current tussle between the West and the East - in
which all peoples are involved willy-nilly - the West can
succeed by ,p urely defensive measures only. So far, however, the political leadership of the West has limited itself to defensive tactics.
The outcome of this behavior which has been alarming for many millons, was the de facto recognition of the
Iron Curtain, an abandonment of the moral and cultural
mission and obligation to defend the freedom of all people and, if need be, to fight for it. By giving up the right
of political control psychological prerequisites were estalblished for the ideological and political integration of East
and Southeast Europe and the Soviets were given the
chance to integrate more than one hundred millions of
human beings into their sphere of power.
Western Doors Always Open
Much worse, however, is he fact that this Bolshevization of the Eastern half of Europe, effectuated in four
to five years, has given the Kremlin the opportunity of
�SLOVAKIA
55
unfolding a general political and ideological offensive
against the free world without the West having a chance
to look Jnto the darkness behind the wings of the Communist stage. At the same time the doors of the West remained open to agents and spies from all over the Communist world, thus enabling ~he Kremlin to cause unrest on
a global scale under the motto of the class struggle and
to allow a fabulous measure of propaganda to take effect
that has brought whole peoples to ruin.
The initiation of the so-called containment policy
meant the indirect and de facto -r ecognition of the status
quo resulting from Communist violence. Western leadership at the time believed that by sacrificing the European
East and South it was possible to buy genuine peaceful
cooperation with Russia and that it would put a stop to
further spread of Communist power. Was it not sheer delusion to believe in a change in the European status quo?
A change did take place, year after year, but always in favor of the Soviet Union.
It is utopia to think that coexistence with the Communist world can go on permanently and that the Russians would be ready without any compelling reason to
change the current status quo by the reunification of Germany or by free elections within the Satellite countries.
This is dangerous wishful thinking which contradicts the
facts as we see them happening in Asia and Africa. A
Western policy that is prepared to recognize the status
quo is not only a betrayal of hundreds of millions of people hungering for fredom, but a threat to the entire world.
The final phase of colonialism that we are going
through today, gave the Russians a golden opportunity
for action. They demanded freedom and independence
for nations that already enjoyed them without benefit of
Soviet propaganda. Although Russia is subjugation incarnate, it claims the role of freedom fighter and liberator.
This boastful sham of Soviet policy and the political
naivete and inexperi,mce of the non-white peoples paved
the way for it.
�56
SLOVAKIA
If an opportunistically-minded person observes the
fanaticism with which the Soviet Russians work toward
greater domination, it is no wonder if he begins to waver.
If today the colored man - treated roughly in past centuries by many a European - falls prey to Communism,
his attitude for the most part is the result of the West's
own attitude of defense.
The peoples of the East, then, often gain the impression that the political leaders of the West repeatedly fail,
because the will and resolve to effectively combat the
Communist world is simply lacking. Even on the West the
opinion is winning ground that our culture and the nations
and peoples who sustain this culture are doomed to extinction. Why, then, should a colored man choose the cultrue that limits itself to defense and, hence, can have no
prospects for the future? Although this opinion stems
from an optical illusion it can, nevertheless, have fateful
consequences.
Active Western St.and Is Imperative
The Russians are everywhere engaged in a ruthless
class struggle. Thus far the West has only been able to
prevent Soviet world domination by non-military power, by
recourse to costly armaments and military preparedness.
As events in Asia and Africa prove, military preparedness
and even superiority alone will not prevent Russia from
spreading its influence and political control to other territories. The fact that the West has no voice and, hence, no
control in the Soviet-dominated areas, while Soviet Russia, on the other hand, together with the West, decides
all important affairs of the West, has unduly strengthened Communist self-confidence and the USSR's aggressive attitude. The Communists are more than ever convinced of the progr:essive nature of their ideology and of
the correctness of their theses. It has merely heightened
their fanaticism. This development is very disquieting because it intensifies instead of diminishing the danger of
war. We should apply the principle of mutuality and draw
the necessary conclusions from the fact that the Soviet
�SLOVAKIA
57
Russians disregard the principles of international law and
automatically exclude themselves from the community of
nations.
The West dare not limit itself to being ready to fight
for the preservation of freedom in the still free world as, for example, in Berlin or South Korea. Whenever
Khrushchev says that he will never cease to encourage
Communist victory throughout the entire world, the Western answer should ring out bold and clear, that we shall
never cease to fight for the liberation of the oppressed
peoples behind the Iron Curtain and shall do everything
we can to make freedom and Christian-Western culture
apply on a world~wide basis. This should not be confused
with a "crusade" against the Soviet Union or the enkindling of a third world war. On the contrary, conditions must
be created that will prevent war. Psychological means
must be applied to drive home to the Kremlin oppressors
that their ideological fanaticism cannot intimidate the
whole world and perpetuate a condition of slavery ad infinitum.
'l'he free world is still in a position to take political,
economic, and diplomatic measures which can strengthen
the actual political desires of millions of enslaved people
behind the Iron Curtain and make it possible some day to
see them realized It is not enough, however, to support
the right of self-determination of peoples merely for tactical reasons. It is of no use as long as the men in the
Kremlin notice that behind such speeches, declarations,
and assertions there is no serious resolve to take political
measures as well.
Balance Can Be Restored
The United States of America has created various
anti~Communist institutions. They have been seriously
weakened, however, by political compromise so that they
could not live up to expectations. It is impossible to hope
to carry out the struggle for freedom and at the same
time divide the oppressed peoples into two categories. If
one promises the Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Russians,
�58
SLOVAKIA
and Baltic Peoples freedom, independence, and the right
of self-determination, one cannot withhold it from the
Slovaks, Croats, Ukrainians, Georgians, and others .
. The West sporadically fostered the hope that the
Russians, in the course of time, would make certain political concessions · by easing terror and by liberalization.
The fifteen years that lie immediately behind us prove
that such expectations are illusory. Instead of allowing
the dominated countries more freedom and self-determination, Russia has ruthlessly incorporated these peoples
into its sphere of power.
When one enters the large libraries of the West and
leafs through the tables of contents, one finds numerous
publications on American, German, English, French, Japanese, and even Soviet imperialism. But one seldom finds,
and then but recently, references to a Russian imperialism although the Russians for centuries have ruled more
non-Russians than Russians. Is this sheer coincidence?
Moscow tries to exploit the dissatisfaction of five or
ten per cent of the population of the West for purposes
of propaganda. The West could use the dissatisfaction of
at least 80 per cent of the people behind the Iron Curtain as a political weapon. This would be in the interest of
freedom and Western culture. Yet it has not been done.
Such a program should be adopted.
If the Western Powers would decide to demand freedom for the peoples under Moscow's oppression and if
appropriate political measures would be taken, they could
again take the initiative in world politics and force the
Kremlin to go on the defensive. Only in this way will it
be possible to guarantee the existence and the continued
development of our culture and social order. Only in this
way can we restore ':he balance and create the conditions
for a lasting peace.
HROBAK'S E:NGLISH-SLOV AK DICTION ARY
there is none better on the market today - can be yours
for only $4.00.
�
50
SLOVAKIA
DEFENSE AWNE IS NOT ENOUGH
By Ferdinand Durcansky
It is a historical fact that the Soviet Imperium
would have collapsed in the course of the second world
war, without the military and economic support of America. At the end of the war the USA was still in a position - due to this active support - to emphasize America's political designs and put them into effect. Proof
thereto lies in Stalin's having to withdraw his troops
from Iran in 1946 at America's behest, although such a
move by no means tallied with Communist strategy.
U. S. political, economic and, a:bove all, military superiority was so impressive and was so highly regarded
by Soviet leaders that even at the 1955 Geneva Conference they dared not show their real hand on the question of Germany's partition. To a certain extent this
power relationship seems to have changed in favor of
the Soviet Imperium. Russia, formerly one of the seven
Great Powers, has meanwhile become one of the two
World Powers, and now controls the eastern half of
Europe, plus the most important areas of the Euro-Asiatic sphere.
At the moment the great European Powers alone
would hardly be in a position effectively to resist the
Kremlin's political pressure. Even America, despite its
costly system of defense, feels itself threatened. This
e~lains why Khrushchev today feels he can simply refuse to discuss German reunification if it does not ta:ke
place the way he thinks it should.
The power complex of the Soviet Union has become
so mighty that Khrushchev periodically threatens, hoping
he will intimidate the allies of the United States and
thereby weaken Western unity. This potential strength
harbors the temptation to superimpose, even on the peoples of the still free world, the political will of the Kremlin.
In any case we must reckon with the fact, that the
men in the saddle in Moscow have made preparations for
achieving world domination as called for by the Commu-
�SLOVAKIA
51
nist ideology. The Russians have reached this position in
less than twenty years, a status that is not only the expression of their own endeavors of military or economic
strength, but for the most part the outcome of faulty
Western policy. A continuation of such policy would stabilize the failures of the West and bring aJbout additional
failures, a fact that should serve as a cogent warning to
all Europe.
Just how did this political and ideological Soviet
Russian gain come about? Is it possible that Communist
ideology and, above all, its practical application, is much
more progressive than our economic and social order?
Is it perhaps more in keeping with over-all human developments than ours, as the Kremlin rulers maintain?
Is State capitalism more enriching and better for the
people in the East than the freedom-loving order of the
Western world?
Facts refute the Communist theses. The basis of our
social order is freedom with its ensuing initiative of the
individual in all realms of human existence. The West
is certainly not poor in ideas. We have both ideas and
principles to offer Communism, which are effective not
only in the West but even in the East. The suppressed
peoples affirm these values. But our methods are wrong.
Western policy refuses to look upon the ideological and
political offensive of world Communism as something
whole and indivisible, and preoccupies itself with only
partial problems and partial aspects.
Tension Is Mainly Political
Too little attention is given to the fact that almost
all the moral and ethical values that form the vital
basis of the civilized nations of Europe are rejected by
the Soviets. The leaders of the Soviet Union even regard, among other factors, the principles of international law as non-<binding for themselves. Every treaty
concluded with the Kremlin is thus made suspect by a
"Clausula rebus sic stantibus." An international treaty is only considered valid as long as it does not contra-
�52
SLOVAKIA
diet the interests of the class struggle. Nor is it an exaggeration to state that the agreements made with · the
Kremlin are scarcely worth more than the paper they are
printed on.
Every treaty signed with the Soviets constitutes a
disadvantage for the free world, which it excludes from
certain actions and possibilities and does not obligate the
Russians since they feel themselves dispensed from all
erstwhile, generally valid, moral-legal maxims. Such principles, emanating from Western culture, contradict Marxist-Leninist teachings. The Soviets behave as if they had
never assumed an obligation, a circumstance proven by
t heir disregard for the treaties of Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, and London. Relations between the free world and
the east cannot, therefore, be regarded as a normal nationally-binding relationship based on the principles of
international law, because the main concern is a question
of power.
The behavior of the West toward the East Block
has, nevertheless, been based at all times on the principles:
and forms of classical foreign policy and diplomacy. In
all differences of opinion and artifically trumped up crises,
measures and methods are applied that scarcely differ
from those employed during the periods of the Vienna
Congress. The results of this conservative force behind
Communist hunger for power are judged solely from the
aspect of momentary security and military potential. To
be sure, a number of Western political leaders have realized that the conflict is an ideological one, but they believe the controversy can be resolved by competing in the
field of propaganda. Even these far-sighted statesmen,
politicians, and publicists fail to see that the tension between East and West represents a political struggle. Cer tainly it has an iedological character with which it is inextricably bound.
The Communists on the other hand leave no doubt
that they are concerned with a whole. When they speak
of a socialist society valid for the world of today they
mean not only production patterns, State order and insti-
�SLOVAKIA
53
tutions, but the intention of annihilating all values that
we possess and that form the basis of our Christian-Western culture, and of replacing them by their ideas and
patterns.
We are actually witnesses of a great historical attempt to replace fre edom throughout the world with slavery. Millions of independent people are to be reduced to
dependence and coercion. In this very century a decision
will be made as to whether Russia is ruble to realize its
plan - World Communism - and destroy the Christian"\Vestern culture, for, without crushing it, Bolshevism cannot get a foothold in these countries. It is thus a question,
whether we value our culture highly enough ourselves
and are resolved to fight for its preservation, or whether
we want to yield to despotism step by step to make room
for a false culture that levels off and nullifies the personality.
Soviet Russia has forced this alternative upon us
and it would be sheer suicide to evade the struggle. The
ensuing political consequences would be of immeasurable
importance and decisive for our future destiny. If it were
only a question of distribution of power between Moscow
and Washington, each of us - each nation, each people,
each stratum of society - would have the right and the
possibility to decide freely and, after consideration of individual interests, either to choose the friendship and alliance of the one or the other, or to remain neutral.
Basic Values Are At Stake
In our century, however, the matter is quite different. The traditional political struggle, which dealt with
the acquisition of foreign territories, colonies and trade
and customs was, with linguistically dependent national
cultural propaganda, and, with competition toward the
opening up of world markets, is a thing of the past. It
means that if people today demand the reunification of
Germany, the freedom of the Slovaks, Hungarians, Rumanians, of the Baltic or other oppressed peoples, this is
not done in the interest of the United States of America,
�54
SLOVAKIA
and does not foresee therein the recognition of any claim
to U. S. leadership and to strengthening U. S. policy, but
that the people concerned become a simple co-combatant
in a struggle for the preservation of our values, which
are to remain the basis of human coexistence even in the
future. When we fight against Communism and, hence,
against the Soviet Union, we do not do so in the interest
of so-called capitalists, but in the interest of our indivisible social order and in the struggle against the enslavement of our progeny.
The fact has been cited in the September 1960 issue
of Der Europaische Osten that World War III has already begun. For the time being it will be carried out on
the not insignificant level of propaganda. To be sure the
means employed, such as radio, television, press cinema,
and literature, are less frightening than those of military,
yet they are powerful and effective. Since the Soviets are
resolved to impose their system on the entire world, it
would be dangerous shortsightedness to believe that in
the current tussle between the West and the East - in
which all peoples are involved willy-nilly - the West can
succeed by ,p urely defensive measures only. So far, however, the political leadership of the West has limited itself to defensive tactics.
The outcome of this behavior which has been alarming for many millons, was the de facto recognition of the
Iron Curtain, an abandonment of the moral and cultural
mission and obligation to defend the freedom of all people and, if need be, to fight for it. By giving up the right
of political control psychological prerequisites were estalblished for the ideological and political integration of East
and Southeast Europe and the Soviets were given the
chance to integrate more than one hundred millions of
human beings into their sphere of power.
Western Doors Always Open
Much worse, however, is he fact that this Bolshevization of the Eastern half of Europe, effectuated in four
to five years, has given the Kremlin the opportunity of
�SLOVAKIA
55
unfolding a general political and ideological offensive
against the free world without the West having a chance
to look Jnto the darkness behind the wings of the Communist stage. At the same time the doors of the West remained open to agents and spies from all over the Communist world, thus enabling ~he Kremlin to cause unrest on
a global scale under the motto of the class struggle and
to allow a fabulous measure of propaganda to take effect
that has brought whole peoples to ruin.
The initiation of the so-called containment policy
meant the indirect and de facto -r ecognition of the status
quo resulting from Communist violence. Western leadership at the time believed that by sacrificing the European
East and South it was possible to buy genuine peaceful
cooperation with Russia and that it would put a stop to
further spread of Communist power. Was it not sheer delusion to believe in a change in the European status quo?
A change did take place, year after year, but always in favor of the Soviet Union.
It is utopia to think that coexistence with the Communist world can go on permanently and that the Russians would be ready without any compelling reason to
change the current status quo by the reunification of Germany or by free elections within the Satellite countries.
This is dangerous wishful thinking which contradicts the
facts as we see them happening in Asia and Africa. A
Western policy that is prepared to recognize the status
quo is not only a betrayal of hundreds of millions of people hungering for fredom, but a threat to the entire world.
The final phase of colonialism that we are going
through today, gave the Russians a golden opportunity
for action. They demanded freedom and independence
for nations that already enjoyed them without benefit of
Soviet propaganda. Although Russia is subjugation incarnate, it claims the role of freedom fighter and liberator.
This boastful sham of Soviet policy and the political
naivete and inexperi,mce of the non-white peoples paved
the way for it.
�56
SLOVAKIA
If an opportunistically-minded person observes the
fanaticism with which the Soviet Russians work toward
greater domination, it is no wonder if he begins to waver.
If today the colored man - treated roughly in past centuries by many a European - falls prey to Communism,
his attitude for the most part is the result of the West's
own attitude of defense.
The peoples of the East, then, often gain the impression that the political leaders of the West repeatedly fail,
because the will and resolve to effectively combat the
Communist world is simply lacking. Even on the West the
opinion is winning ground that our culture and the nations
and peoples who sustain this culture are doomed to extinction. Why, then, should a colored man choose the cultrue that limits itself to defense and, hence, can have no
prospects for the future? Although this opinion stems
from an optical illusion it can, nevertheless, have fateful
consequences.
Active Western St.and Is Imperative
The Russians are everywhere engaged in a ruthless
class struggle. Thus far the West has only been able to
prevent Soviet world domination by non-military power, by
recourse to costly armaments and military preparedness.
As events in Asia and Africa prove, military preparedness
and even superiority alone will not prevent Russia from
spreading its influence and political control to other territories. The fact that the West has no voice and, hence, no
control in the Soviet-dominated areas, while Soviet Russia, on the other hand, together with the West, decides
all important affairs of the West, has unduly strengthened Communist self-confidence and the USSR's aggressive attitude. The Communists are more than ever convinced of the progr:essive nature of their ideology and of
the correctness of their theses. It has merely heightened
their fanaticism. This development is very disquieting because it intensifies instead of diminishing the danger of
war. We should apply the principle of mutuality and draw
the necessary conclusions from the fact that the Soviet
�SLOVAKIA
57
Russians disregard the principles of international law and
automatically exclude themselves from the community of
nations.
The West dare not limit itself to being ready to fight
for the preservation of freedom in the still free world as, for example, in Berlin or South Korea. Whenever
Khrushchev says that he will never cease to encourage
Communist victory throughout the entire world, the Western answer should ring out bold and clear, that we shall
never cease to fight for the liberation of the oppressed
peoples behind the Iron Curtain and shall do everything
we can to make freedom and Christian-Western culture
apply on a world~wide basis. This should not be confused
with a "crusade" against the Soviet Union or the enkindling of a third world war. On the contrary, conditions must
be created that will prevent war. Psychological means
must be applied to drive home to the Kremlin oppressors
that their ideological fanaticism cannot intimidate the
whole world and perpetuate a condition of slavery ad infinitum.
'l'he free world is still in a position to take political,
economic, and diplomatic measures which can strengthen
the actual political desires of millions of enslaved people
behind the Iron Curtain and make it possible some day to
see them realized It is not enough, however, to support
the right of self-determination of peoples merely for tactical reasons. It is of no use as long as the men in the
Kremlin notice that behind such speeches, declarations,
and assertions there is no serious resolve to take political
measures as well.
Balance Can Be Restored
The United States of America has created various
anti~Communist institutions. They have been seriously
weakened, however, by political compromise so that they
could not live up to expectations. It is impossible to hope
to carry out the struggle for freedom and at the same
time divide the oppressed peoples into two categories. If
one promises the Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Russians,
�58
SLOVAKIA
and Baltic Peoples freedom, independence, and the right
of self-determination, one cannot withhold it from the
Slovaks, Croats, Ukrainians, Georgians, and others .
. The West sporadically fostered the hope that the
Russians, in the course of time, would make certain political concessions · by easing terror and by liberalization.
The fifteen years that lie immediately behind us prove
that such expectations are illusory. Instead of allowing
the dominated countries more freedom and self-determination, Russia has ruthlessly incorporated these peoples
into its sphere of power.
When one enters the large libraries of the West and
leafs through the tables of contents, one finds numerous
publications on American, German, English, French, Japanese, and even Soviet imperialism. But one seldom finds,
and then but recently, references to a Russian imperialism although the Russians for centuries have ruled more
non-Russians than Russians. Is this sheer coincidence?
Moscow tries to exploit the dissatisfaction of five or
ten per cent of the population of the West for purposes
of propaganda. The West could use the dissatisfaction of
at least 80 per cent of the people behind the Iron Curtain as a political weapon. This would be in the interest of
freedom and Western culture. Yet it has not been done.
Such a program should be adopted.
If the Western Powers would decide to demand freedom for the peoples under Moscow's oppression and if
appropriate political measures would be taken, they could
again take the initiative in world politics and force the
Kremlin to go on the defensive. Only in this way will it
be possible to guarantee the existence and the continued
development of our culture and social order. Only in this
way can we restore ':he balance and create the conditions
for a lasting peace.
HROBAK'S E:NGLISH-SLOV AK DICTION ARY
there is none better on the market today - can be yours
for only $4.00.
�
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
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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
DEFENSE AWNE IS NOT ENOUGH
By Ferdinand Durcansky
It is a historical fact that the Soviet Imperium
would have collapsed in the course of the second world
war, without the military and economic support of America. At the end of the war the USA was still in a position - due to this active support - to emphasize America's political designs and put them into effect. Proof
thereto lies in Stalin's having to withdraw his troops
from Iran in 1946 at America's behest, although such a
move by no means tallied with Communist strategy.
U. S. political, economic and, a:bove all, military superiority was so impressive and was so highly regarded
by Soviet leaders that even at the 1955 Geneva Conference they dared not show their real hand on the question of Germany's partition. To a certain extent this
power relationship seems to have changed in favor of
the Soviet Imperium. Russia, formerly one of the seven
Great Powers, has meanwhile become one of the two
World Powers, and now controls the eastern half of
Europe, plus the most important areas of the Euro-Asiatic sphere.
At the moment the great European Powers alone
would hardly be in a position effectively to resist the
Kremlin's political pressure. Even America, despite its
costly system of defense, feels itself threatened. This
e~lains why Khrushchev today feels he can simply refuse to discuss German reunification if it does not ta:ke
place the way he thinks it should.
The power complex of the Soviet Union has become
so mighty that Khrushchev periodically threatens, hoping
he will intimidate the allies of the United States and
thereby weaken Western unity. This potential strength
harbors the temptation to superimpose, even on the peoples of the still free world, the political will of the Kremlin.
In any case we must reckon with the fact, that the
men in the saddle in Moscow have made preparations for
achieving world domination as called for by the Commu-
SLOVAKIA
51
nist ideology. The Russians have reached this position in
less than twenty years, a status that is not only the expression of their own endeavors of military or economic
strength, but for the most part the outcome of faulty
Western policy. A continuation of such policy would stabilize the failures of the West and bring aJbout additional
failures, a fact that should serve as a cogent warning to
all Europe.
Just how did this political and ideological Soviet
Russian gain come about? Is it possible that Communist
ideology and, above all, its practical application, is much
more progressive than our economic and social order?
Is it perhaps more in keeping with over-all human developments than ours, as the Kremlin rulers maintain?
Is State capitalism more enriching and better for the
people in the East than the freedom-loving order of the
Western world?
Facts refute the Communist theses. The basis of our
social order is freedom with its ensuing initiative of the
individual in all realms of human existence. The West
is certainly not poor in ideas. We have both ideas and
principles to offer Communism, which are effective not
only in the West but even in the East. The suppressed
peoples affirm these values. But our methods are wrong.
Western policy refuses to look upon the ideological and
political offensive of world Communism as something
whole and indivisible, and preoccupies itself with only
partial problems and partial aspects.
Tension Is Mainly Political
Too little attention is given to the fact that almost
all the moral and ethical values that form the vital
basis of the civilized nations of Europe are rejected by
the Soviets. The leaders of the Soviet Union even regard, among other factors, the principles of international law as non-<binding for themselves. Every treaty
concluded with the Kremlin is thus made suspect by a
"Clausula rebus sic stantibus." An international treaty is only considered valid as long as it does not contra-
52
SLOVAKIA
diet the interests of the class struggle. Nor is it an exaggeration to state that the agreements made with · the
Kremlin are scarcely worth more than the paper they are
printed on.
Every treaty signed with the Soviets constitutes a
disadvantage for the free world, which it excludes from
certain actions and possibilities and does not obligate the
Russians since they feel themselves dispensed from all
erstwhile, generally valid, moral-legal maxims. Such principles, emanating from Western culture, contradict Marxist-Leninist teachings. The Soviets behave as if they had
never assumed an obligation, a circumstance proven by
t heir disregard for the treaties of Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, and London. Relations between the free world and
the east cannot, therefore, be regarded as a normal nationally-binding relationship based on the principles of
international law, because the main concern is a question
of power.
The behavior of the West toward the East Block
has, nevertheless, been based at all times on the principles:
and forms of classical foreign policy and diplomacy. In
all differences of opinion and artifically trumped up crises,
measures and methods are applied that scarcely differ
from those employed during the periods of the Vienna
Congress. The results of this conservative force behind
Communist hunger for power are judged solely from the
aspect of momentary security and military potential. To
be sure, a number of Western political leaders have realized that the conflict is an ideological one, but they believe the controversy can be resolved by competing in the
field of propaganda. Even these far-sighted statesmen,
politicians, and publicists fail to see that the tension between East and West represents a political struggle. Cer tainly it has an iedological character with which it is inextricably bound.
The Communists on the other hand leave no doubt
that they are concerned with a whole. When they speak
of a socialist society valid for the world of today they
mean not only production patterns, State order and insti-
SLOVAKIA
53
tutions, but the intention of annihilating all values that
we possess and that form the basis of our Christian-Western culture, and of replacing them by their ideas and
patterns.
We are actually witnesses of a great historical attempt to replace fre edom throughout the world with slavery. Millions of independent people are to be reduced to
dependence and coercion. In this very century a decision
will be made as to whether Russia is ruble to realize its
plan - World Communism - and destroy the Christian"\Vestern culture, for, without crushing it, Bolshevism cannot get a foothold in these countries. It is thus a question,
whether we value our culture highly enough ourselves
and are resolved to fight for its preservation, or whether
we want to yield to despotism step by step to make room
for a false culture that levels off and nullifies the personality.
Soviet Russia has forced this alternative upon us
and it would be sheer suicide to evade the struggle. The
ensuing political consequences would be of immeasurable
importance and decisive for our future destiny. If it were
only a question of distribution of power between Moscow
and Washington, each of us - each nation, each people,
each stratum of society - would have the right and the
possibility to decide freely and, after consideration of individual interests, either to choose the friendship and alliance of the one or the other, or to remain neutral.
Basic Values Are At Stake
In our century, however, the matter is quite different. The traditional political struggle, which dealt with
the acquisition of foreign territories, colonies and trade
and customs was, with linguistically dependent national
cultural propaganda, and, with competition toward the
opening up of world markets, is a thing of the past. It
means that if people today demand the reunification of
Germany, the freedom of the Slovaks, Hungarians, Rumanians, of the Baltic or other oppressed peoples, this is
not done in the interest of the United States of America,
54
SLOVAKIA
and does not foresee therein the recognition of any claim
to U. S. leadership and to strengthening U. S. policy, but
that the people concerned become a simple co-combatant
in a struggle for the preservation of our values, which
are to remain the basis of human coexistence even in the
future. When we fight against Communism and, hence,
against the Soviet Union, we do not do so in the interest
of so-called capitalists, but in the interest of our indivisible social order and in the struggle against the enslavement of our progeny.
The fact has been cited in the September 1960 issue
of Der Europaische Osten that World War III has already begun. For the time being it will be carried out on
the not insignificant level of propaganda. To be sure the
means employed, such as radio, television, press cinema,
and literature, are less frightening than those of military,
yet they are powerful and effective. Since the Soviets are
resolved to impose their system on the entire world, it
would be dangerous shortsightedness to believe that in
the current tussle between the West and the East - in
which all peoples are involved willy-nilly - the West can
succeed by ,p urely defensive measures only. So far, however, the political leadership of the West has limited itself to defensive tactics.
The outcome of this behavior which has been alarming for many millons, was the de facto recognition of the
Iron Curtain, an abandonment of the moral and cultural
mission and obligation to defend the freedom of all people and, if need be, to fight for it. By giving up the right
of political control psychological prerequisites were estalblished for the ideological and political integration of East
and Southeast Europe and the Soviets were given the
chance to integrate more than one hundred millions of
human beings into their sphere of power.
Western Doors Always Open
Much worse, however, is he fact that this Bolshevization of the Eastern half of Europe, effectuated in four
to five years, has given the Kremlin the opportunity of
SLOVAKIA
55
unfolding a general political and ideological offensive
against the free world without the West having a chance
to look Jnto the darkness behind the wings of the Communist stage. At the same time the doors of the West remained open to agents and spies from all over the Communist world, thus enabling ~he Kremlin to cause unrest on
a global scale under the motto of the class struggle and
to allow a fabulous measure of propaganda to take effect
that has brought whole peoples to ruin.
The initiation of the so-called containment policy
meant the indirect and de facto -r ecognition of the status
quo resulting from Communist violence. Western leadership at the time believed that by sacrificing the European
East and South it was possible to buy genuine peaceful
cooperation with Russia and that it would put a stop to
further spread of Communist power. Was it not sheer delusion to believe in a change in the European status quo?
A change did take place, year after year, but always in favor of the Soviet Union.
It is utopia to think that coexistence with the Communist world can go on permanently and that the Russians would be ready without any compelling reason to
change the current status quo by the reunification of Germany or by free elections within the Satellite countries.
This is dangerous wishful thinking which contradicts the
facts as we see them happening in Asia and Africa. A
Western policy that is prepared to recognize the status
quo is not only a betrayal of hundreds of millions of people hungering for fredom, but a threat to the entire world.
The final phase of colonialism that we are going
through today, gave the Russians a golden opportunity
for action. They demanded freedom and independence
for nations that already enjoyed them without benefit of
Soviet propaganda. Although Russia is subjugation incarnate, it claims the role of freedom fighter and liberator.
This boastful sham of Soviet policy and the political
naivete and inexperi,mce of the non-white peoples paved
the way for it.
56
SLOVAKIA
If an opportunistically-minded person observes the
fanaticism with which the Soviet Russians work toward
greater domination, it is no wonder if he begins to waver.
If today the colored man - treated roughly in past centuries by many a European - falls prey to Communism,
his attitude for the most part is the result of the West's
own attitude of defense.
The peoples of the East, then, often gain the impression that the political leaders of the West repeatedly fail,
because the will and resolve to effectively combat the
Communist world is simply lacking. Even on the West the
opinion is winning ground that our culture and the nations
and peoples who sustain this culture are doomed to extinction. Why, then, should a colored man choose the cultrue that limits itself to defense and, hence, can have no
prospects for the future? Although this opinion stems
from an optical illusion it can, nevertheless, have fateful
consequences.
Active Western St.and Is Imperative
The Russians are everywhere engaged in a ruthless
class struggle. Thus far the West has only been able to
prevent Soviet world domination by non-military power, by
recourse to costly armaments and military preparedness.
As events in Asia and Africa prove, military preparedness
and even superiority alone will not prevent Russia from
spreading its influence and political control to other territories. The fact that the West has no voice and, hence, no
control in the Soviet-dominated areas, while Soviet Russia, on the other hand, together with the West, decides
all important affairs of the West, has unduly strengthened Communist self-confidence and the USSR's aggressive attitude. The Communists are more than ever convinced of the progr:essive nature of their ideology and of
the correctness of their theses. It has merely heightened
their fanaticism. This development is very disquieting because it intensifies instead of diminishing the danger of
war. We should apply the principle of mutuality and draw
the necessary conclusions from the fact that the Soviet
SLOVAKIA
57
Russians disregard the principles of international law and
automatically exclude themselves from the community of
nations.
The West dare not limit itself to being ready to fight
for the preservation of freedom in the still free world as, for example, in Berlin or South Korea. Whenever
Khrushchev says that he will never cease to encourage
Communist victory throughout the entire world, the Western answer should ring out bold and clear, that we shall
never cease to fight for the liberation of the oppressed
peoples behind the Iron Curtain and shall do everything
we can to make freedom and Christian-Western culture
apply on a world~wide basis. This should not be confused
with a "crusade" against the Soviet Union or the enkindling of a third world war. On the contrary, conditions must
be created that will prevent war. Psychological means
must be applied to drive home to the Kremlin oppressors
that their ideological fanaticism cannot intimidate the
whole world and perpetuate a condition of slavery ad infinitum.
'l'he free world is still in a position to take political,
economic, and diplomatic measures which can strengthen
the actual political desires of millions of enslaved people
behind the Iron Curtain and make it possible some day to
see them realized It is not enough, however, to support
the right of self-determination of peoples merely for tactical reasons. It is of no use as long as the men in the
Kremlin notice that behind such speeches, declarations,
and assertions there is no serious resolve to take political
measures as well.
Balance Can Be Restored
The United States of America has created various
anti~Communist institutions. They have been seriously
weakened, however, by political compromise so that they
could not live up to expectations. It is impossible to hope
to carry out the struggle for freedom and at the same
time divide the oppressed peoples into two categories. If
one promises the Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Russians,
58
SLOVAKIA
and Baltic Peoples freedom, independence, and the right
of self-determination, one cannot withhold it from the
Slovaks, Croats, Ukrainians, Georgians, and others .
. The West sporadically fostered the hope that the
Russians, in the course of time, would make certain political concessions · by easing terror and by liberalization.
The fifteen years that lie immediately behind us prove
that such expectations are illusory. Instead of allowing
the dominated countries more freedom and self-determination, Russia has ruthlessly incorporated these peoples
into its sphere of power.
When one enters the large libraries of the West and
leafs through the tables of contents, one finds numerous
publications on American, German, English, French, Japanese, and even Soviet imperialism. But one seldom finds,
and then but recently, references to a Russian imperialism although the Russians for centuries have ruled more
non-Russians than Russians. Is this sheer coincidence?
Moscow tries to exploit the dissatisfaction of five or
ten per cent of the population of the West for purposes
of propaganda. The West could use the dissatisfaction of
at least 80 per cent of the people behind the Iron Curtain as a political weapon. This would be in the interest of
freedom and Western culture. Yet it has not been done.
Such a program should be adopted.
If the Western Powers would decide to demand freedom for the peoples under Moscow's oppression and if
appropriate political measures would be taken, they could
again take the initiative in world politics and force the
Kremlin to go on the defensive. Only in this way will it
be possible to guarantee the existence and the continued
development of our culture and social order. Only in this
way can we restore ':he balance and create the conditions
for a lasting peace.
HROBAK'S E:NGLISH-SLOV AK DICTION ARY
there is none better on the market today - can be yours
for only $4.00.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Defense Alone is Not Enough
Description
An account of the resource
Ferdinand Ďurčanský
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 50-58
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ďurčanský, Ferdinand
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
LCNAF
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/586cf8c56d88961f6a577dd62da5e0dc.pdf
11b2a87de41d7130d931b67c883c09b4
PDF Text
Text
SLOVAKIA
59
CZEOH GROUPS IN EXIl,E
Fritz Peter Babel
The history of Czecho-Slovak political groups in exile has unfortunately not yet been written. It would offer
the world at large a fascinating story with the suspense
and thrill of a good novel. There are actually three periods of exile: the first one from 1914 to 1918; the second
and third periods between 1938 and 1945, and from 1945
to 1948. These latter periods are harder to delineate since
they partially overlap.
Two aspects, often mutually independent, monopolize
the foreground: the actors in the drama, and the results
attained. Who, in 1914, would have dreamed that four years
later a Czecho~Slovak Republic would be among the vi.ctorious powers of the first world war? The titanic external
political success was attributable to the exploitation by a
few men of a number of favorable circumstances. At their
head stood Thomas G. Masaryk, professor of philosophy,
who - rightly or wrongly - is still today regarded as a
wise statesman, benevolent philosopher and outstanding
humanist. In the background, only known to the initiated,
was a versatile actor on the political stage, playing a vital
role. His name was Dr. Edward Benes.
Twenty years later, due to circumstances that cannot
be treated within the limited scope of this paper, the
Czecho-Slovak Republic collapsed. This collapse appeared
to be final, for the world at that time looked most critically upon the constructional defects of that State. Many
reports have been preserved from which it is clearly evident that in 1938 Czecho-Slovakia was regarded as impossible of reconstruction in its pre-Munich status, even if
Germany should lose the war.
The second period of Czecho-Slovak exile began at
this moral zero. At its head stood Dr. Benes, regarded by
many as politically bankrupt but, at the same time, regarded by an ever-growing number of followers as a tragic and the first victim of Adolf Hitler. In any event Dr.
�60
SLOVAKIA
Benes succeeded, by taking advantage of favorable circumstances, not only in restoring Czecho-Slovakia, but also in
making it an essentially Slavic State by the expulsion of
the Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars). The accoucheur of this "new" restored State was primarily Josef
Stalin, who let his bailiff Klement Gottwald, present the
bill in February 1948. Once again a Czecho-Slovak group ,
in exile seemingly succeeded in performing the impossible;
once again the existence of a single widely recognized person was a prerequisite for this development.
The third order of exile at no time couJd boast of a
person of such caliber, and for this reason it could book
no success at all. In fact, it remained to a large extent unknown. To be sure all the Czech, Slovak, and "Czechoslovak" politicians desire a Bohemian-Moravian-Slovakian
region !~berated from Communism, and to this end various
constitutional solutions have been proposed. At the same
time any uniformity of their political thinking is virtually
impossi'ble due to the Sudeten German question. More and
more Czechs and Slovaks have with the passage of time ,
come to the conclusion that this problem was not "settled"
by the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans, but that it is
still awaiting a real solution. Nevertheless, again and again
voices may be heard to the contrary.
A so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," with
headquarters in the USA, which has been dissolved several
times only to be refounded again, advocates as part of its
official policy not only the approval of the expulsion of the
Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars), but it has
demanded of the Federal Republic of Germany that the act
of expulsion be recognized as "a definitively settled matter." That was the situation as expressed in a memorandum issued by the Council in the summer of 1960.
It is not within the scope and purpose of this paper
to refer to the numerous half truths and untruths the memorandum contains. It is likewise not the purpose to call
attention to the dangerous relationship between many of
its theses and Communist slogans. Since it is an important
condition of every fruitful controversy clearly to be aware
�SLOVAKIA
61
of the viewpoint of the philosophical and political opponent, a question from the above-mentioned memorandum
seems appropriate. After historic declarations and arguments in favor of the expulsion which is always referred
to as the "transfer" it says:
" ... The transfer was not considered to be an act of
retaliation but a contdbution to the security of CzechoSlovakia from the German Drang nach Ost.en and a contribution to the protection of European peace . . . In their
fight for return, the Sudeten Germans plead for recognition as a unique ethnic group. They forward this claim,
although in 1938 they coined the slogan 'Heim ins Reich~
inasmuch as they declared themselves to be an ethnic segment of the larger German nation. No doubt considerable
influence was lent to this Sudeten German claim by the
thought that the peace conference acceded the right of
self-determination solely to ethnic entirities and not to
fragments of a people living on the territory of forei,gn
States. By the demand for recognition as a special ethnic
group, they hope to acquire the right of self-determination. This demand differs in no way from those which the
Sudeten Germans pleaded for prior to the war. At that
time when the advice and complete support of Hitler was
granted them, the Sudeten Germans transferred the demand from that of autonomy and confederative reconstruction of Czecho-'Slovakia to one of separation of the border
regions from Czecho-Slovakia and annexation to the German Reich. Today they understand by self-determination
expressly the right to and power of disposition over that
portion of the Czechoslovak territory in which they, intermingled with the Czech population, were settled up to
the time of their deportation. After the experiences of
1938 that necessarily means, in the eyes of every "Czechoslovak," renewed destruction of Czecho-Slovakfa and the
annihilation of the Republic ... "
Thereupon follows a prediction for the future: " ... In
case it should come to annexing the Czecho-Slovak border
territory to Germany, Czecho-Slovakia would be economically and commercially just as mutilated as was the case
�62
SLOVAKIA
after Munich. The country's capacity to exist would be retarded and instead of being a contribution to free Europe
it would be ballast, should it be a!ble to maintain itself as
a State at all. Should the Sudeten Germans be allowed to
return and to constitute themselves in a federative union
in Czecho-Slovakia, 'lew nationality struggles, inseparable
from heavy social and especially internatnonal repercus- ,
sions, would flare up anew. The Sudeten Germans would
once again seek the aid of Germany against the Czechs
and the Slovaks, thus disturbing Czecho-Slovak relations
and becoming within Germany itself the support and lever
of undemocratic, pan-Germaniically oriented elements. The
troubled relations would mean a new threat to Czecho-Slovak independence. The satisfying of Sudeten German demands in this or that form would therefore be possible,
in the final analysis, only at the price of Czecho-Slovakia's
annihilation. One must also consider that in light of their
historical development and their experiences, State independence is an indispensa'ble prerequisite for the CzechoSlovaks' national existence and growth.
"For this very basic :reason it is a,bsolutely necessary
that the West make no further change in its approval of
the transfer and that it consider the Sudeten question settled. But for tactical reasons, too, the free world should
resist the demands of the Sudeten Germans. Any manner
of concessions would be interpreted by the Communist
government as a sacrifice of Czecho-Slovak national interests in favor of German interests and would be regarded as a new threat to the national eX!istence of the Czech
and Slovak peoples and would surely have a catastrophic
effect on the spirit of resistance to and fight a·g ainst
Communism in Czecho-Slovakia. It would compel the masses of Czechs and Slovaks to identify themselves with the
Communist government against which they now stand
resolutely opposed.
"It is of no less importance to free Czecho-Slovaks
than it is to the free world that Germany become a permanent member of the community of free peoples. This affiliation can only become effective and reliruble if Ger-
�SLOVAKIA
63
many recognizes the rights of other peoples, especially of
the peoples of Central Europe, to national independence
and sovereignty, and does not allow different groups be they from the ranks of the original population or from
the ranks of the expelled minorities - to impose a policy
on Germany which would, in its consequences, lead to a
negation of these rights. For then Germany would cut
itself off from the community of free peoples and instead
of being a co-determinant, would be a destroyer of the
Europe of the future. Since the return of the expellees
would have just such consequences, this means, in the case
of Czecho-Slovakia, that Germany should recognize the
expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as a definitive settlement.
"Such recognition will also serve as the firmest foundation for truly friendly relations between free Germany
and free Czechoslovakia. Czecho.JSlovakia desires nothing
more than to be an island of <!reative peace which introduces no tensions into the international order and gives no
occasion for quarrels but contributes to a non-violent
organization of the world."
There are also other opinions with regard to GermanCzech relations. They can, for obvious reasons, be worded
much more concisely. Here is the answer of the "Czech
Christian Democratic Movement in Exile" to the above
memorandum:
"It is our opinion that ,i t should be the highest political principle of the various refugee groups that they
resolve their own problems in a spirit of Christian understanding. The step taken by the 'Council of Free Czechoslovakia' seems to us to be determined by the opposite of
that principle. To defend the eX'pulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the western provinces of Czecho-Slovakia a measure which a self-aJppointed government of that
country executed in the year of 1945 - appears to us to
spell approval of the reprehensible deeds of the Bolshevists; it proves a lack of desire to subordinate one's own
petty feelings to the concept of a united and peaceful
Europe ... No European nation - above all no small na-
�SLOVAKIA
64
tion like ours - can find lasting peace in a divided Europe. Federalization is the only way to peace in Europe.
The Czechs could scarcely participate in such a federation
if they refused their German-speaking fellow-countrymen
the right to their homeland, thus bringing about lasting
tension between themselves and their big neighbor ... "
In conclusion the Czech Christian Democrats renewed
their approval of the Wiesbaden Agrement of Augus: 1950.
Deriving from the spirit of this fairly well-known agreement, there has appeared in recent years a personality
that may prove the dominant figure in the third period of
Czechs and Slovaks in exile. On May 29, 1955, Army General Lev Prchala stated before the participants in _the
mighty demonstration of Sudeten Germans at the 6th
Sudeten Day in Nuremberg: "As a human being and as a
European I condemn the crime that was committed against
the Sudeten Germans in 1945. As a Czech and a Christian
I feel myself obligated to ask the Sudeten German men
and women for pardon."
It is to be hoped that this seed will ripen. It is a good,
fresh seed. Although an old man sowed it, it needs the
cultivation of all true humanists who, from the mistakes
of yesterday, via the adversities of today, believe in the
dawning of a new tomorrow.
P . Hletko, M.D., hooiorary president and former president of the
League, was elected president.
Philip A. Hrobak, president of
the Lea,gue sin,ce Ma~, 1950, who
favored the election Olf Dr. Hletk-0,
now serves on the Executive Commitbce together with Monsignor
Francis J. DlllboSlh, P.A. , Lakewood, Ohio, honorary president
and former president of the
League; Paul Jamrislm, Pittsburgh,
Pa .; John A. ScJJ'bol, president of
the First Catlho[ic Slovak Uinoion ,
Phoenixville, Pa., and Joseph G.
3€
3€
3€
Prusa, secretary of the Slov-a k CaThe Slovak League of America tholic Sokol. The next Oongress
held its 36th Congress in Detroit, will be in Philadelphia, Pa. , in
Mich., May 27-29, 1962. Dr. Peter 1-964.
F.rano Stefunka, Slowik academic scu]Jptor, is working on, a memorial to Ja•n Kollar who was
among the initiators of the cultural Pan-Slaivist'ic movement in S1<r
vakia. 'Dhe Kollar creation is to be
unveiled in Mosovce, Slovakia, on
July 29, 1963, t'he 1'7oth anniversary of Kollar's birth. He is known
particularly, for his ly,ric-e,pic
poem "Slavy dcera" and his collection (4 volumes) of Slovak folksongs (Narodnie Zpievanky"). Kollar was born in Mosoivce, Slov.akia,
on Jiuly 29, 1'7 93.
1
�
SLOVAKIA
59
CZEOH GROUPS IN EXIl,E
Fritz Peter Babel
The history of Czecho-Slovak political groups in exile has unfortunately not yet been written. It would offer
the world at large a fascinating story with the suspense
and thrill of a good novel. There are actually three periods of exile: the first one from 1914 to 1918; the second
and third periods between 1938 and 1945, and from 1945
to 1948. These latter periods are harder to delineate since
they partially overlap.
Two aspects, often mutually independent, monopolize
the foreground: the actors in the drama, and the results
attained. Who, in 1914, would have dreamed that four years
later a Czecho~Slovak Republic would be among the vi.ctorious powers of the first world war? The titanic external
political success was attributable to the exploitation by a
few men of a number of favorable circumstances. At their
head stood Thomas G. Masaryk, professor of philosophy,
who - rightly or wrongly - is still today regarded as a
wise statesman, benevolent philosopher and outstanding
humanist. In the background, only known to the initiated,
was a versatile actor on the political stage, playing a vital
role. His name was Dr. Edward Benes.
Twenty years later, due to circumstances that cannot
be treated within the limited scope of this paper, the
Czecho-Slovak Republic collapsed. This collapse appeared
to be final, for the world at that time looked most critically upon the constructional defects of that State. Many
reports have been preserved from which it is clearly evident that in 1938 Czecho-Slovakia was regarded as impossible of reconstruction in its pre-Munich status, even if
Germany should lose the war.
The second period of Czecho-Slovak exile began at
this moral zero. At its head stood Dr. Benes, regarded by
many as politically bankrupt but, at the same time, regarded by an ever-growing number of followers as a tragic and the first victim of Adolf Hitler. In any event Dr.
�60
SLOVAKIA
Benes succeeded, by taking advantage of favorable circumstances, not only in restoring Czecho-Slovakia, but also in
making it an essentially Slavic State by the expulsion of
the Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars). The accoucheur of this "new" restored State was primarily Josef
Stalin, who let his bailiff Klement Gottwald, present the
bill in February 1948. Once again a Czecho-Slovak group ,
in exile seemingly succeeded in performing the impossible;
once again the existence of a single widely recognized person was a prerequisite for this development.
The third order of exile at no time couJd boast of a
person of such caliber, and for this reason it could book
no success at all. In fact, it remained to a large extent unknown. To be sure all the Czech, Slovak, and "Czechoslovak" politicians desire a Bohemian-Moravian-Slovakian
region !~berated from Communism, and to this end various
constitutional solutions have been proposed. At the same
time any uniformity of their political thinking is virtually
impossi'ble due to the Sudeten German question. More and
more Czechs and Slovaks have with the passage of time ,
come to the conclusion that this problem was not "settled"
by the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans, but that it is
still awaiting a real solution. Nevertheless, again and again
voices may be heard to the contrary.
A so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," with
headquarters in the USA, which has been dissolved several
times only to be refounded again, advocates as part of its
official policy not only the approval of the expulsion of the
Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars), but it has
demanded of the Federal Republic of Germany that the act
of expulsion be recognized as "a definitively settled matter." That was the situation as expressed in a memorandum issued by the Council in the summer of 1960.
It is not within the scope and purpose of this paper
to refer to the numerous half truths and untruths the memorandum contains. It is likewise not the purpose to call
attention to the dangerous relationship between many of
its theses and Communist slogans. Since it is an important
condition of every fruitful controversy clearly to be aware
�SLOVAKIA
61
of the viewpoint of the philosophical and political opponent, a question from the above-mentioned memorandum
seems appropriate. After historic declarations and arguments in favor of the expulsion which is always referred
to as the "transfer" it says:
" ... The transfer was not considered to be an act of
retaliation but a contdbution to the security of CzechoSlovakia from the German Drang nach Ost.en and a contribution to the protection of European peace . . . In their
fight for return, the Sudeten Germans plead for recognition as a unique ethnic group. They forward this claim,
although in 1938 they coined the slogan 'Heim ins Reich~
inasmuch as they declared themselves to be an ethnic segment of the larger German nation. No doubt considerable
influence was lent to this Sudeten German claim by the
thought that the peace conference acceded the right of
self-determination solely to ethnic entirities and not to
fragments of a people living on the territory of forei,gn
States. By the demand for recognition as a special ethnic
group, they hope to acquire the right of self-determination. This demand differs in no way from those which the
Sudeten Germans pleaded for prior to the war. At that
time when the advice and complete support of Hitler was
granted them, the Sudeten Germans transferred the demand from that of autonomy and confederative reconstruction of Czecho-'Slovakia to one of separation of the border
regions from Czecho-Slovakia and annexation to the German Reich. Today they understand by self-determination
expressly the right to and power of disposition over that
portion of the Czechoslovak territory in which they, intermingled with the Czech population, were settled up to
the time of their deportation. After the experiences of
1938 that necessarily means, in the eyes of every "Czechoslovak," renewed destruction of Czecho-Slovakfa and the
annihilation of the Republic ... "
Thereupon follows a prediction for the future: " ... In
case it should come to annexing the Czecho-Slovak border
territory to Germany, Czecho-Slovakia would be economically and commercially just as mutilated as was the case
�62
SLOVAKIA
after Munich. The country's capacity to exist would be retarded and instead of being a contribution to free Europe
it would be ballast, should it be a!ble to maintain itself as
a State at all. Should the Sudeten Germans be allowed to
return and to constitute themselves in a federative union
in Czecho-Slovakia, 'lew nationality struggles, inseparable
from heavy social and especially internatnonal repercus- ,
sions, would flare up anew. The Sudeten Germans would
once again seek the aid of Germany against the Czechs
and the Slovaks, thus disturbing Czecho-Slovak relations
and becoming within Germany itself the support and lever
of undemocratic, pan-Germaniically oriented elements. The
troubled relations would mean a new threat to Czecho-Slovak independence. The satisfying of Sudeten German demands in this or that form would therefore be possible,
in the final analysis, only at the price of Czecho-Slovakia's
annihilation. One must also consider that in light of their
historical development and their experiences, State independence is an indispensa'ble prerequisite for the CzechoSlovaks' national existence and growth.
"For this very basic :reason it is a,bsolutely necessary
that the West make no further change in its approval of
the transfer and that it consider the Sudeten question settled. But for tactical reasons, too, the free world should
resist the demands of the Sudeten Germans. Any manner
of concessions would be interpreted by the Communist
government as a sacrifice of Czecho-Slovak national interests in favor of German interests and would be regarded as a new threat to the national eX!istence of the Czech
and Slovak peoples and would surely have a catastrophic
effect on the spirit of resistance to and fight a·g ainst
Communism in Czecho-Slovakia. It would compel the masses of Czechs and Slovaks to identify themselves with the
Communist government against which they now stand
resolutely opposed.
"It is of no less importance to free Czecho-Slovaks
than it is to the free world that Germany become a permanent member of the community of free peoples. This affiliation can only become effective and reliruble if Ger-
�SLOVAKIA
63
many recognizes the rights of other peoples, especially of
the peoples of Central Europe, to national independence
and sovereignty, and does not allow different groups be they from the ranks of the original population or from
the ranks of the expelled minorities - to impose a policy
on Germany which would, in its consequences, lead to a
negation of these rights. For then Germany would cut
itself off from the community of free peoples and instead
of being a co-determinant, would be a destroyer of the
Europe of the future. Since the return of the expellees
would have just such consequences, this means, in the case
of Czecho-Slovakia, that Germany should recognize the
expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as a definitive settlement.
"Such recognition will also serve as the firmest foundation for truly friendly relations between free Germany
and free Czechoslovakia. Czecho.JSlovakia desires nothing
more than to be an island of <!reative peace which introduces no tensions into the international order and gives no
occasion for quarrels but contributes to a non-violent
organization of the world."
There are also other opinions with regard to GermanCzech relations. They can, for obvious reasons, be worded
much more concisely. Here is the answer of the "Czech
Christian Democratic Movement in Exile" to the above
memorandum:
"It is our opinion that ,i t should be the highest political principle of the various refugee groups that they
resolve their own problems in a spirit of Christian understanding. The step taken by the 'Council of Free Czechoslovakia' seems to us to be determined by the opposite of
that principle. To defend the eX'pulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the western provinces of Czecho-Slovakia a measure which a self-aJppointed government of that
country executed in the year of 1945 - appears to us to
spell approval of the reprehensible deeds of the Bolshevists; it proves a lack of desire to subordinate one's own
petty feelings to the concept of a united and peaceful
Europe ... No European nation - above all no small na-
�SLOVAKIA
64
tion like ours - can find lasting peace in a divided Europe. Federalization is the only way to peace in Europe.
The Czechs could scarcely participate in such a federation
if they refused their German-speaking fellow-countrymen
the right to their homeland, thus bringing about lasting
tension between themselves and their big neighbor ... "
In conclusion the Czech Christian Democrats renewed
their approval of the Wiesbaden Agrement of Augus: 1950.
Deriving from the spirit of this fairly well-known agreement, there has appeared in recent years a personality
that may prove the dominant figure in the third period of
Czechs and Slovaks in exile. On May 29, 1955, Army General Lev Prchala stated before the participants in _the
mighty demonstration of Sudeten Germans at the 6th
Sudeten Day in Nuremberg: "As a human being and as a
European I condemn the crime that was committed against
the Sudeten Germans in 1945. As a Czech and a Christian
I feel myself obligated to ask the Sudeten German men
and women for pardon."
It is to be hoped that this seed will ripen. It is a good,
fresh seed. Although an old man sowed it, it needs the
cultivation of all true humanists who, from the mistakes
of yesterday, via the adversities of today, believe in the
dawning of a new tomorrow.
P . Hletko, M.D., hooiorary president and former president of the
League, was elected president.
Philip A. Hrobak, president of
the Lea,gue sin,ce Ma~, 1950, who
favored the election Olf Dr. Hletk-0,
now serves on the Executive Commitbce together with Monsignor
Francis J. DlllboSlh, P.A. , Lakewood, Ohio, honorary president
and former president of the
League; Paul Jamrislm, Pittsburgh,
Pa .; John A. ScJJ'bol, president of
the First Catlho[ic Slovak Uinoion ,
Phoenixville, Pa., and Joseph G.
3€
3€
3€
Prusa, secretary of the Slov-a k CaThe Slovak League of America tholic Sokol. The next Oongress
held its 36th Congress in Detroit, will be in Philadelphia, Pa. , in
Mich., May 27-29, 1962. Dr. Peter 1-964.
F.rano Stefunka, Slowik academic scu]Jptor, is working on, a memorial to Ja•n Kollar who was
among the initiators of the cultural Pan-Slaivist'ic movement in S1<r
vakia. 'Dhe Kollar creation is to be
unveiled in Mosovce, Slovakia, on
July 29, 1963, t'he 1'7oth anniversary of Kollar's birth. He is known
particularly, for his ly,ric-e,pic
poem "Slavy dcera" and his collection (4 volumes) of Slovak folksongs (Narodnie Zpievanky"). Kollar was born in Mosoivce, Slov.akia,
on Jiuly 29, 1'7 93.
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
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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
CZEOH GROUPS IN EXIl,E
Fritz Peter Babel
The history of Czecho-Slovak political groups in exile has unfortunately not yet been written. It would offer
the world at large a fascinating story with the suspense
and thrill of a good novel. There are actually three periods of exile: the first one from 1914 to 1918; the second
and third periods between 1938 and 1945, and from 1945
to 1948. These latter periods are harder to delineate since
they partially overlap.
Two aspects, often mutually independent, monopolize
the foreground: the actors in the drama, and the results
attained. Who, in 1914, would have dreamed that four years
later a Czecho~Slovak Republic would be among the vi.ctorious powers of the first world war? The titanic external
political success was attributable to the exploitation by a
few men of a number of favorable circumstances. At their
head stood Thomas G. Masaryk, professor of philosophy,
who - rightly or wrongly - is still today regarded as a
wise statesman, benevolent philosopher and outstanding
humanist. In the background, only known to the initiated,
was a versatile actor on the political stage, playing a vital
role. His name was Dr. Edward Benes.
Twenty years later, due to circumstances that cannot
be treated within the limited scope of this paper, the
Czecho-Slovak Republic collapsed. This collapse appeared
to be final, for the world at that time looked most critically upon the constructional defects of that State. Many
reports have been preserved from which it is clearly evident that in 1938 Czecho-Slovakia was regarded as impossible of reconstruction in its pre-Munich status, even if
Germany should lose the war.
The second period of Czecho-Slovak exile began at
this moral zero. At its head stood Dr. Benes, regarded by
many as politically bankrupt but, at the same time, regarded by an ever-growing number of followers as a tragic and the first victim of Adolf Hitler. In any event Dr.
60
SLOVAKIA
Benes succeeded, by taking advantage of favorable circumstances, not only in restoring Czecho-Slovakia, but also in
making it an essentially Slavic State by the expulsion of
the Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars). The accoucheur of this "new" restored State was primarily Josef
Stalin, who let his bailiff Klement Gottwald, present the
bill in February 1948. Once again a Czecho-Slovak group ,
in exile seemingly succeeded in performing the impossible;
once again the existence of a single widely recognized person was a prerequisite for this development.
The third order of exile at no time couJd boast of a
person of such caliber, and for this reason it could book
no success at all. In fact, it remained to a large extent unknown. To be sure all the Czech, Slovak, and "Czechoslovak" politicians desire a Bohemian-Moravian-Slovakian
region !~berated from Communism, and to this end various
constitutional solutions have been proposed. At the same
time any uniformity of their political thinking is virtually
impossi'ble due to the Sudeten German question. More and
more Czechs and Slovaks have with the passage of time ,
come to the conclusion that this problem was not "settled"
by the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans, but that it is
still awaiting a real solution. Nevertheless, again and again
voices may be heard to the contrary.
A so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," with
headquarters in the USA, which has been dissolved several
times only to be refounded again, advocates as part of its
official policy not only the approval of the expulsion of the
Sudeten Germans and Hungarians (Magyars), but it has
demanded of the Federal Republic of Germany that the act
of expulsion be recognized as "a definitively settled matter." That was the situation as expressed in a memorandum issued by the Council in the summer of 1960.
It is not within the scope and purpose of this paper
to refer to the numerous half truths and untruths the memorandum contains. It is likewise not the purpose to call
attention to the dangerous relationship between many of
its theses and Communist slogans. Since it is an important
condition of every fruitful controversy clearly to be aware
SLOVAKIA
61
of the viewpoint of the philosophical and political opponent, a question from the above-mentioned memorandum
seems appropriate. After historic declarations and arguments in favor of the expulsion which is always referred
to as the "transfer" it says:
" ... The transfer was not considered to be an act of
retaliation but a contdbution to the security of CzechoSlovakia from the German Drang nach Ost.en and a contribution to the protection of European peace . . . In their
fight for return, the Sudeten Germans plead for recognition as a unique ethnic group. They forward this claim,
although in 1938 they coined the slogan 'Heim ins Reich~
inasmuch as they declared themselves to be an ethnic segment of the larger German nation. No doubt considerable
influence was lent to this Sudeten German claim by the
thought that the peace conference acceded the right of
self-determination solely to ethnic entirities and not to
fragments of a people living on the territory of forei,gn
States. By the demand for recognition as a special ethnic
group, they hope to acquire the right of self-determination. This demand differs in no way from those which the
Sudeten Germans pleaded for prior to the war. At that
time when the advice and complete support of Hitler was
granted them, the Sudeten Germans transferred the demand from that of autonomy and confederative reconstruction of Czecho-'Slovakia to one of separation of the border
regions from Czecho-Slovakia and annexation to the German Reich. Today they understand by self-determination
expressly the right to and power of disposition over that
portion of the Czechoslovak territory in which they, intermingled with the Czech population, were settled up to
the time of their deportation. After the experiences of
1938 that necessarily means, in the eyes of every "Czechoslovak," renewed destruction of Czecho-Slovakfa and the
annihilation of the Republic ... "
Thereupon follows a prediction for the future: " ... In
case it should come to annexing the Czecho-Slovak border
territory to Germany, Czecho-Slovakia would be economically and commercially just as mutilated as was the case
62
SLOVAKIA
after Munich. The country's capacity to exist would be retarded and instead of being a contribution to free Europe
it would be ballast, should it be a!ble to maintain itself as
a State at all. Should the Sudeten Germans be allowed to
return and to constitute themselves in a federative union
in Czecho-Slovakia, 'lew nationality struggles, inseparable
from heavy social and especially internatnonal repercus- ,
sions, would flare up anew. The Sudeten Germans would
once again seek the aid of Germany against the Czechs
and the Slovaks, thus disturbing Czecho-Slovak relations
and becoming within Germany itself the support and lever
of undemocratic, pan-Germaniically oriented elements. The
troubled relations would mean a new threat to Czecho-Slovak independence. The satisfying of Sudeten German demands in this or that form would therefore be possible,
in the final analysis, only at the price of Czecho-Slovakia's
annihilation. One must also consider that in light of their
historical development and their experiences, State independence is an indispensa'ble prerequisite for the CzechoSlovaks' national existence and growth.
"For this very basic :reason it is a,bsolutely necessary
that the West make no further change in its approval of
the transfer and that it consider the Sudeten question settled. But for tactical reasons, too, the free world should
resist the demands of the Sudeten Germans. Any manner
of concessions would be interpreted by the Communist
government as a sacrifice of Czecho-Slovak national interests in favor of German interests and would be regarded as a new threat to the national eX!istence of the Czech
and Slovak peoples and would surely have a catastrophic
effect on the spirit of resistance to and fight a·g ainst
Communism in Czecho-Slovakia. It would compel the masses of Czechs and Slovaks to identify themselves with the
Communist government against which they now stand
resolutely opposed.
"It is of no less importance to free Czecho-Slovaks
than it is to the free world that Germany become a permanent member of the community of free peoples. This affiliation can only become effective and reliruble if Ger-
SLOVAKIA
63
many recognizes the rights of other peoples, especially of
the peoples of Central Europe, to national independence
and sovereignty, and does not allow different groups be they from the ranks of the original population or from
the ranks of the expelled minorities - to impose a policy
on Germany which would, in its consequences, lead to a
negation of these rights. For then Germany would cut
itself off from the community of free peoples and instead
of being a co-determinant, would be a destroyer of the
Europe of the future. Since the return of the expellees
would have just such consequences, this means, in the case
of Czecho-Slovakia, that Germany should recognize the
expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as a definitive settlement.
"Such recognition will also serve as the firmest foundation for truly friendly relations between free Germany
and free Czechoslovakia. Czecho.JSlovakia desires nothing
more than to be an island of <!reative peace which introduces no tensions into the international order and gives no
occasion for quarrels but contributes to a non-violent
organization of the world."
There are also other opinions with regard to GermanCzech relations. They can, for obvious reasons, be worded
much more concisely. Here is the answer of the "Czech
Christian Democratic Movement in Exile" to the above
memorandum:
"It is our opinion that ,i t should be the highest political principle of the various refugee groups that they
resolve their own problems in a spirit of Christian understanding. The step taken by the 'Council of Free Czechoslovakia' seems to us to be determined by the opposite of
that principle. To defend the eX'pulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the western provinces of Czecho-Slovakia a measure which a self-aJppointed government of that
country executed in the year of 1945 - appears to us to
spell approval of the reprehensible deeds of the Bolshevists; it proves a lack of desire to subordinate one's own
petty feelings to the concept of a united and peaceful
Europe ... No European nation - above all no small na-
SLOVAKIA
64
tion like ours - can find lasting peace in a divided Europe. Federalization is the only way to peace in Europe.
The Czechs could scarcely participate in such a federation
if they refused their German-speaking fellow-countrymen
the right to their homeland, thus bringing about lasting
tension between themselves and their big neighbor ... "
In conclusion the Czech Christian Democrats renewed
their approval of the Wiesbaden Agrement of Augus: 1950.
Deriving from the spirit of this fairly well-known agreement, there has appeared in recent years a personality
that may prove the dominant figure in the third period of
Czechs and Slovaks in exile. On May 29, 1955, Army General Lev Prchala stated before the participants in _the
mighty demonstration of Sudeten Germans at the 6th
Sudeten Day in Nuremberg: "As a human being and as a
European I condemn the crime that was committed against
the Sudeten Germans in 1945. As a Czech and a Christian
I feel myself obligated to ask the Sudeten German men
and women for pardon."
It is to be hoped that this seed will ripen. It is a good,
fresh seed. Although an old man sowed it, it needs the
cultivation of all true humanists who, from the mistakes
of yesterday, via the adversities of today, believe in the
dawning of a new tomorrow.
P . Hletko, M.D., hooiorary president and former president of the
League, was elected president.
Philip A. Hrobak, president of
the Lea,gue sin,ce Ma~, 1950, who
favored the election Olf Dr. Hletk-0,
now serves on the Executive Commitbce together with Monsignor
Francis J. DlllboSlh, P.A. , Lakewood, Ohio, honorary president
and former president of the
League; Paul Jamrislm, Pittsburgh,
Pa .; John A. ScJJ'bol, president of
the First Catlho[ic Slovak Uinoion ,
Phoenixville, Pa., and Joseph G.
3€
3€
3€
Prusa, secretary of the Slov-a k CaThe Slovak League of America tholic Sokol. The next Oongress
held its 36th Congress in Detroit, will be in Philadelphia, Pa. , in
Mich., May 27-29, 1962. Dr. Peter 1-964.
F.rano Stefunka, Slowik academic scu]Jptor, is working on, a memorial to Ja•n Kollar who was
among the initiators of the cultural Pan-Slaivist'ic movement in S1<r
vakia. 'Dhe Kollar creation is to be
unveiled in Mosovce, Slovakia, on
July 29, 1963, t'he 1'7oth anniversary of Kollar's birth. He is known
particularly, for his ly,ric-e,pic
poem "Slavy dcera" and his collection (4 volumes) of Slovak folksongs (Narodnie Zpievanky"). Kollar was born in Mosoivce, Slov.akia,
on Jiuly 29, 1'7 93.
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
Czech Groups in Exile
Description
An account of the resource
Fritz Peter Habel
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 59-64
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Habel, Fritz Peter, 1931-2011
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
LCNAF+dates
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5122f120baea7fd9398a1b9cfe3e3e6d.pdf
8a89012ad1d7dbff82f8306a3b8ec037
PDF Text
Text
SLOVAKIA
65
EXIT CZECHO-SLOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
By Wolfgang E. Oberleitner
Czecho-Slovakia has so far appeared to be the most
stable of the "People's Democracies," more so than the
Soviet Union, where Khrushchev's battles with his adversaries have been going on for years and are still not
settled. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, the ruling clique
has so far managed to face the public as a monolithic
block, welded together by the awareness of the liability
of dictatorial regimes, even if they do come off with 98
per cent of the votes at every election.
Ever since the major crisis of 1952 that ended in the
denunciation of Deputy Minister President Slansky and
his cosmopolitan entourage, there have been no further
symptoms of internal tension in the CSR. That explains
Moscow's ability to rely at all times on its Czech ally and
to point him out to other satellites as an example of what
communist regime consolidation is like.
This optimistic picture of the situation in CzechoSlovakia is actually deceptive. The case of erstwhile Deputy Minister President Barak, dubbed by State President and First Party Secretary Antonin Novotny as a "political adventurer and criminal" points to chinks that cannot easily be puttied up. Novotny's accusations are all
the more surprising since Barak is a man who for eight
years was in control of the entire State and Party apparatus and knew, as hardly anyone else, just what was going on and would perhaps have been in a position to
take over the reins of power himself. His meteoric rise
from a simple worker to one of the big ten in the Czech
Politburo may have caused him to believe that the moment had come to reach for the top party position first secretary - which Novotny, a man ten years his
senior (60), was naturally unwilling to yield.
Barak was clever enough to stay in the background
and seldom made a speech lest one day, when the wind
blew the other way, it be held against him. To be sure, he
�66
SLOVAKIA
could point to achievements, but these proved to be more
of a burden to the department of justice than to himself. Right after he took over the Ministry of the Interior
in September 1953, Barak began to weed out communist
opposition. First on the agenda was the trial of Bishop
Trochta, whom he had sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. He then turned the .guns on the Catholic People's
Party - it had already been put out of commission and the leaders were given heavy terms in the penitentiary. That same year the Social Democrats were brought •
before the tribunal; 24 of their functionaries were given
long prison terms. The full storm of hatred of the police
minister, whose methods strongly resembled those of his
Soviet colleague Beria, was directed against the Slovak
"separatists," four of whom he sentenced to death as
late as 1958 and many others got long prison terms.
It was not the terrorist methods, however, employed
by Barak's henchmen, that proved fateful, but the calumniations of the People's Councils subordinate to · him.
Novotny, who of course, knew about all this, now brought
charges against his one-time colleague for "broadly plotted violations of the laiw." The president of the State who the year before had seen how Barak was trying to
wangle himself into a position from which he could outmaneuver Novotny, a man who spoke much of de.:Stalinization but did nothing about it - repeated the same game
th'a t had been used against Slansky in 1951, namely, removal from office while giving the incumbent the decorative post of Deputy Minister President, only to arrest him
a few months later and have him executed. In June, 1961,
Barak was forced to give up the Ministry of the Interior
in exchange for a government commission for the People's Councils. As early as September, 1960, the dark
clouds started to form over Barak's head when remarks
were made in parliament by Novotny's representative Vavra about "socialist legality" being violated by members
of the People's Councils "whose functionaries are only too
little acquainted with the legal regulations."
A few days later the communist Rude Pravo pre-
�SLOVAKIA
67
sented examples to shed more light on scandals which,
though not begun under Barak, continued under his administration. It was learned that strange business was being conducted at the machinery and tractor stations in
Znaim. Instead of repairing the mowers, trade was booming in ladies lingerie. Pullovers, coats and silk stockings
were being bought up from large firms and immediately
r esold to their industrial enterprisers with a boost in
price of 10 per cent. The profit of 226,000 crowns was
divided up. Since the district "People's Council" was proba:bly bribed, there was, it was thought, small likelihood
of being caught.
In the fall of 1961, the National Assembly even passed
a resolution in which it indirectly invited Barak to clean
up the thievings and damage to socialist property and to
put a stop to the plethora of "unjustified local interests"
wherever it was taking place at the expense of the overall economy. Even with the best of intentions Barak
could not possibly have righted the situation in such a
short time, partly because many of his people were among
the People's Councils and he did not want to or could not.
be too rough with th0m, since they knew too much.
While in office, Barak spoke of many existent abuses
that ought to be corrected. The "people's " court wanted
to know why he did practically nothing to solve the problems he so frequently spoke of ... and then sentenced
him to 16 years in jail. Communism devours its own
children!
Simon Jurovsky, head o'f the S:1o- thr-0wn out of bhe Czech Red Parvak National Theater opera pro- ty, and condemned to 15 years i'Il
ductions, celebrated h is 50th birth- jail. According to t'he Pr:a,gue r adaty in Bratislava. He was born dio broadcast of February 8, Bain Ul'anlka, near Banska Bystri<:a, rak had misused and abused :his
I power amid hel<P'ed himselif to moFebruaror 8, 1'912.
ney th,at belonged to the socialisill!
ill!
il!!
Rudolph Barak, Czech COIIllmu- tic state.
l!(!
l!(!
l!(!
nist and sadist, who served the
SLOVA:IGIA, according to statisPra,gue re~me as Minister Olf the
Interior before he was kiiclced "up- tics recentliy released, had a popustairs" t-0 become Deputy Premier, lation, of 4',220,000 art the end of
was arrested eady in 1lhe year, December, '11961.
�
SLOVAKIA
65
EXIT CZECHO-SLOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
By Wolfgang E. Oberleitner
Czecho-Slovakia has so far appeared to be the most
stable of the "People's Democracies," more so than the
Soviet Union, where Khrushchev's battles with his adversaries have been going on for years and are still not
settled. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, the ruling clique
has so far managed to face the public as a monolithic
block, welded together by the awareness of the liability
of dictatorial regimes, even if they do come off with 98
per cent of the votes at every election.
Ever since the major crisis of 1952 that ended in the
denunciation of Deputy Minister President Slansky and
his cosmopolitan entourage, there have been no further
symptoms of internal tension in the CSR. That explains
Moscow's ability to rely at all times on its Czech ally and
to point him out to other satellites as an example of what
communist regime consolidation is like.
This optimistic picture of the situation in CzechoSlovakia is actually deceptive. The case of erstwhile Deputy Minister President Barak, dubbed by State President and First Party Secretary Antonin Novotny as a "political adventurer and criminal" points to chinks that cannot easily be puttied up. Novotny's accusations are all
the more surprising since Barak is a man who for eight
years was in control of the entire State and Party apparatus and knew, as hardly anyone else, just what was going on and would perhaps have been in a position to
take over the reins of power himself. His meteoric rise
from a simple worker to one of the big ten in the Czech
Politburo may have caused him to believe that the moment had come to reach for the top party position first secretary - which Novotny, a man ten years his
senior (60), was naturally unwilling to yield.
Barak was clever enough to stay in the background
and seldom made a speech lest one day, when the wind
blew the other way, it be held against him. To be sure, he
�66
SLOVAKIA
could point to achievements, but these proved to be more
of a burden to the department of justice than to himself. Right after he took over the Ministry of the Interior
in September 1953, Barak began to weed out communist
opposition. First on the agenda was the trial of Bishop
Trochta, whom he had sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. He then turned the .guns on the Catholic People's
Party - it had already been put out of commission and the leaders were given heavy terms in the penitentiary. That same year the Social Democrats were brought •
before the tribunal; 24 of their functionaries were given
long prison terms. The full storm of hatred of the police
minister, whose methods strongly resembled those of his
Soviet colleague Beria, was directed against the Slovak
"separatists," four of whom he sentenced to death as
late as 1958 and many others got long prison terms.
It was not the terrorist methods, however, employed
by Barak's henchmen, that proved fateful, but the calumniations of the People's Councils subordinate to · him.
Novotny, who of course, knew about all this, now brought
charges against his one-time colleague for "broadly plotted violations of the laiw." The president of the State who the year before had seen how Barak was trying to
wangle himself into a position from which he could outmaneuver Novotny, a man who spoke much of de.:Stalinization but did nothing about it - repeated the same game
th'a t had been used against Slansky in 1951, namely, removal from office while giving the incumbent the decorative post of Deputy Minister President, only to arrest him
a few months later and have him executed. In June, 1961,
Barak was forced to give up the Ministry of the Interior
in exchange for a government commission for the People's Councils. As early as September, 1960, the dark
clouds started to form over Barak's head when remarks
were made in parliament by Novotny's representative Vavra about "socialist legality" being violated by members
of the People's Councils "whose functionaries are only too
little acquainted with the legal regulations."
A few days later the communist Rude Pravo pre-
�SLOVAKIA
67
sented examples to shed more light on scandals which,
though not begun under Barak, continued under his administration. It was learned that strange business was being conducted at the machinery and tractor stations in
Znaim. Instead of repairing the mowers, trade was booming in ladies lingerie. Pullovers, coats and silk stockings
were being bought up from large firms and immediately
r esold to their industrial enterprisers with a boost in
price of 10 per cent. The profit of 226,000 crowns was
divided up. Since the district "People's Council" was proba:bly bribed, there was, it was thought, small likelihood
of being caught.
In the fall of 1961, the National Assembly even passed
a resolution in which it indirectly invited Barak to clean
up the thievings and damage to socialist property and to
put a stop to the plethora of "unjustified local interests"
wherever it was taking place at the expense of the overall economy. Even with the best of intentions Barak
could not possibly have righted the situation in such a
short time, partly because many of his people were among
the People's Councils and he did not want to or could not.
be too rough with th0m, since they knew too much.
While in office, Barak spoke of many existent abuses
that ought to be corrected. The "people's " court wanted
to know why he did practically nothing to solve the problems he so frequently spoke of ... and then sentenced
him to 16 years in jail. Communism devours its own
children!
Simon Jurovsky, head o'f the S:1o- thr-0wn out of bhe Czech Red Parvak National Theater opera pro- ty, and condemned to 15 years i'Il
ductions, celebrated h is 50th birth- jail. According to t'he Pr:a,gue r adaty in Bratislava. He was born dio broadcast of February 8, Bain Ul'anlka, near Banska Bystri<:a, rak had misused and abused :his
I power amid hel<P'ed himselif to moFebruaror 8, 1'912.
ney th,at belonged to the socialisill!
ill!
il!!
Rudolph Barak, Czech COIIllmu- tic state.
l!(!
l!(!
l!(!
nist and sadist, who served the
SLOVA:IGIA, according to statisPra,gue re~me as Minister Olf the
Interior before he was kiiclced "up- tics recentliy released, had a popustairs" t-0 become Deputy Premier, lation, of 4',220,000 art the end of
was arrested eady in 1lhe year, December, '11961.
�
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
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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
65
EXIT CZECHO-SLOVAKIA'S "BERIA"
By Wolfgang E. Oberleitner
Czecho-Slovakia has so far appeared to be the most
stable of the "People's Democracies," more so than the
Soviet Union, where Khrushchev's battles with his adversaries have been going on for years and are still not
settled. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, the ruling clique
has so far managed to face the public as a monolithic
block, welded together by the awareness of the liability
of dictatorial regimes, even if they do come off with 98
per cent of the votes at every election.
Ever since the major crisis of 1952 that ended in the
denunciation of Deputy Minister President Slansky and
his cosmopolitan entourage, there have been no further
symptoms of internal tension in the CSR. That explains
Moscow's ability to rely at all times on its Czech ally and
to point him out to other satellites as an example of what
communist regime consolidation is like.
This optimistic picture of the situation in CzechoSlovakia is actually deceptive. The case of erstwhile Deputy Minister President Barak, dubbed by State President and First Party Secretary Antonin Novotny as a "political adventurer and criminal" points to chinks that cannot easily be puttied up. Novotny's accusations are all
the more surprising since Barak is a man who for eight
years was in control of the entire State and Party apparatus and knew, as hardly anyone else, just what was going on and would perhaps have been in a position to
take over the reins of power himself. His meteoric rise
from a simple worker to one of the big ten in the Czech
Politburo may have caused him to believe that the moment had come to reach for the top party position first secretary - which Novotny, a man ten years his
senior (60), was naturally unwilling to yield.
Barak was clever enough to stay in the background
and seldom made a speech lest one day, when the wind
blew the other way, it be held against him. To be sure, he
66
SLOVAKIA
could point to achievements, but these proved to be more
of a burden to the department of justice than to himself. Right after he took over the Ministry of the Interior
in September 1953, Barak began to weed out communist
opposition. First on the agenda was the trial of Bishop
Trochta, whom he had sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. He then turned the .guns on the Catholic People's
Party - it had already been put out of commission and the leaders were given heavy terms in the penitentiary. That same year the Social Democrats were brought •
before the tribunal; 24 of their functionaries were given
long prison terms. The full storm of hatred of the police
minister, whose methods strongly resembled those of his
Soviet colleague Beria, was directed against the Slovak
"separatists," four of whom he sentenced to death as
late as 1958 and many others got long prison terms.
It was not the terrorist methods, however, employed
by Barak's henchmen, that proved fateful, but the calumniations of the People's Councils subordinate to · him.
Novotny, who of course, knew about all this, now brought
charges against his one-time colleague for "broadly plotted violations of the laiw." The president of the State who the year before had seen how Barak was trying to
wangle himself into a position from which he could outmaneuver Novotny, a man who spoke much of de.:Stalinization but did nothing about it - repeated the same game
th'a t had been used against Slansky in 1951, namely, removal from office while giving the incumbent the decorative post of Deputy Minister President, only to arrest him
a few months later and have him executed. In June, 1961,
Barak was forced to give up the Ministry of the Interior
in exchange for a government commission for the People's Councils. As early as September, 1960, the dark
clouds started to form over Barak's head when remarks
were made in parliament by Novotny's representative Vavra about "socialist legality" being violated by members
of the People's Councils "whose functionaries are only too
little acquainted with the legal regulations."
A few days later the communist Rude Pravo pre-
SLOVAKIA
67
sented examples to shed more light on scandals which,
though not begun under Barak, continued under his administration. It was learned that strange business was being conducted at the machinery and tractor stations in
Znaim. Instead of repairing the mowers, trade was booming in ladies lingerie. Pullovers, coats and silk stockings
were being bought up from large firms and immediately
r esold to their industrial enterprisers with a boost in
price of 10 per cent. The profit of 226,000 crowns was
divided up. Since the district "People's Council" was proba:bly bribed, there was, it was thought, small likelihood
of being caught.
In the fall of 1961, the National Assembly even passed
a resolution in which it indirectly invited Barak to clean
up the thievings and damage to socialist property and to
put a stop to the plethora of "unjustified local interests"
wherever it was taking place at the expense of the overall economy. Even with the best of intentions Barak
could not possibly have righted the situation in such a
short time, partly because many of his people were among
the People's Councils and he did not want to or could not.
be too rough with th0m, since they knew too much.
While in office, Barak spoke of many existent abuses
that ought to be corrected. The "people's " court wanted
to know why he did practically nothing to solve the problems he so frequently spoke of ... and then sentenced
him to 16 years in jail. Communism devours its own
children!
Simon Jurovsky, head o'f the S:1o- thr-0wn out of bhe Czech Red Parvak National Theater opera pro- ty, and condemned to 15 years i'Il
ductions, celebrated h is 50th birth- jail. According to t'he Pr:a,gue r adaty in Bratislava. He was born dio broadcast of February 8, Bain Ul'anlka, near Banska Bystri<:a, rak had misused and abused :his
I power amid hel<P'ed himselif to moFebruaror 8, 1'912.
ney th,at belonged to the socialisill!
ill!
il!!
Rudolph Barak, Czech COIIllmu- tic state.
l!(!
l!(!
l!(!
nist and sadist, who served the
SLOVA:IGIA, according to statisPra,gue re~me as Minister Olf the
Interior before he was kiiclced "up- tics recentliy released, had a popustairs" t-0 become Deputy Premier, lation, of 4',220,000 art the end of
was arrested eady in 1lhe year, December, '11961.
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
Exit Czecho-Slovakia's "Beria"
Description
An account of the resource
Wolfgang E. Oberleitner
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 65-67
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Oberleitner, Wolfgang, 1918-2006
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
LCNAF
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a11c37fb481196f1ad5d26d821390ff2.pdf
82adf1a4320c33f596dc00d8ff6c963e
PDF Text
Text
68
SLOVAKIA
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN PRAGUE
By Adolf Tosch
Approximately one year ago a university was foun- •
ded in Moscow to accomodate several thousand students.
from the underdeveloped countries. Obviousiy it is in-·
tended that education be given along communist lines ..
The name of the murdered Congolese communist sympathizer, Patrice Lumumba, is supposed to attract all the·
people previously or still under colonial rule in such man-·
ner as to convince them of the benevolence and unselfishness of the first socialist world State and to win for
Prague trustworthy and grateful supporters who will co-·
operate, together with their respective nations, with the
communist States. This new school of higher learning,
equipped to hand out an abundance of scholarships, hopes.
to draw promising young folk to its halls, serve as a central training center for specialists and radiate like a lighthouse of Soviet scientific and cultural achievement into,
all four corners of the globe.
A similar university has now opened its doors in
Czecho-Slovakia, the new "University of November 17."
Its first students were the high school graduates of the
class of 1962. By no means a competitor to the Soviet
Russian Lumumba University, this new Czech institu-•
tion does hope to improve international and political relations by peaceful means. Economic factors play an important role, too, since the CSR, with its growing industrial potential, is seeking to dispose of its products in
new markets as they open up. To this end it has need of"
native experts in the various foreign countries concerned.
The very name of this new school confirms this surmise;
after all, its purpose is to strike a blow at the German
Federal Republic, presently a serious bar to Czech eco-·
nomic expansion. Actually there is no connection between
the closing of the Czech univ•~rsities on November 17,
1939 by the National Socialists and this new school. The
name has been chosen strictly to serve domestic and
foreign propaganda. ·
�SLOVAKIA
69
At present there are 1,800 foreign students in the
CSR from 70 different countries. The Africans are the
largest group, welded together in the Union of African
Students (Ucitelske noviny, Novem'b er 17, 1961). Fifty
per cent of them are students of medicine, thirty per cent
technology and about twenty per cent are enrolled in economics courses. The remainder are pursuing other specialized fields. All foreign - for the most part colored students are registered at the School of Economics in
Prague. (Tvorba 47-1961). A new regulation has gone
into effect, however, stipulating that new arrivals shall
belong to the new university, be registered there and put
into strict camps where they will be briefed in preparation for their studies and groomed for contact and association with the native population. In October 1961, for
example, 44 students arrived from Cambodia, Mexico, Cameroun, Angola, Chile, Columbia, and Argentina to enroll
in a one-year course in the Czech language. They were
quartered in a former court house building in Dobruschka
in northern Bohemia.. In November, 1961, 120 Cuban
students of a total of 200 were sent to Senec and Topolcianky for a course in Slovak, while the rest presumably
went to Dobruschka.
It would seem that so far the foreign students have
caused the universities quite a headache, partly because
of the varying types of college preparatory training and
also because of difficulties with the language. A variety of political reasons are also involved. These problems have led the a.uthorities to formulate new regulations for foreign students which include, as far as the
University 17th of November is concerned, courses in
the Czech and Slovak languages, plus a technical knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and
descriptive geometry. The language courses given at the
Slovak centers of Senec and Topolcianky are part of
preparatory schooling for as many as 100 students (Praca 298-61). The first group of freshmen were registered
with great ceremony on December 12, 1961, by the rector of the new university, Dr. Jaroslav Martinie. The
�70
SLOVAKIA
group consists of students from Iraq, Iran, Cameroun,
Jordania, Mali, Sudan and several dozen other African,
Asian, Latin American and European States, as well as
students from Bulgaria and even the Soviet sector of
Germany. The student in this age group may enroll at one
of the other Czech or Slovak schools of higher learning
or may continue his studies at the two other schools of the
University 17th of November, i.e., the School of Natural
Sciences and Technology and/or the School of Social Sciences, which are to open their doors at the beginning of
the 1962-63 school year.
The difference between the two kinds of university
education lies in the fact that schooling at the regular
Czech universities applies to Czecho ..Slovak conditions and
is very heavily specialized, even where curricula have
been altered to meet the needs of individual forei·g n students, especially from the underdeveloped countries. On
the other hand, courses at the University 17th of November are much broader and not as thorough. At the School
of Natural Sciences and Technology, for example, teacher
training courses will be introduced plus construction engineering. This decision was made, according to Rector
Martinie, because political economy in the underdeveloped ,
countries is still in its infancy. It will take time for it to
reach a point where special training in that field becomes
requisite. For the present a student interested, for example, in bridge construction must attend one of the
other universities.
In the School of Social Sciences, teacher training
courses will be given for those desiring to teach in the
elementary and secondary schols and a course in social
sciences, combined with the training of political functionaries, will also be added. The regular schools (faculties) within the University of November 17 are counting
of complete or partial instruction in one of the world languages (English, French, Spanish), to facilitate communication between instructors and students. One year's instruction in Czech or Slovak alone will not suffice.
Five or six years are required for a student to com-
�SLOVAKIA
71
plete his university education in a specialized field such
as technology. This period is one year longer for foreign
students requiring language training. Curriculum planners have proposed shortening the length of study for
.foreigners in certain subjects while keeping the quality
at university level, a step that would speed up the training
-0f national specialists for the countries concerned. The
.subject matter would be highly concentrated and much
more practical than theoretical.
The University of November 17, with its three schools,
is intended to become a uniform, State center for the training of foreign students in the CSR. It seems quite likely
that study at this university will become more and more
.strict, new curricula will be worked out and rigid controls
put into operation. Its status is to be raised by granting
it authority to issue diplomas and by setting certain standards of achievement. Those of the School of Social Sciences are of particular interest as this school trains teachers for elementary and secondary schools and offers courses in the particular field of social sciences which is combined with the training of political functionaries. This fact
seems to characterize most acurately the purpose behind
the founding of this new university.
Czecho-Slovak teachers are also assigned to tasks
abroad. They assist, for example, in the African school
system where they not only teach but also "organize the
school system" (Mlada Fronta 285/61). An exhibition of
polytechnical teaching in Conakry is designed to popularize Czecho-Slovak experiences, although this type of teaching has been introdueed in Czecho-Slovakia itself only a
short time ago for experimental reasons. Furthermore the
inhabitants of Africa are shown pictures of the education
and culture of the CSR, a culture to which the Communists
themselves have contributed but very little, for the culture
of Czecho-Slovakia is still minted by an older, Occidental
past.
SLOVAK LESSONS - a two year course for adults
is still available. Bound in cloth - $3.50.
�
68
SLOVAKIA
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN PRAGUE
By Adolf Tosch
Approximately one year ago a university was foun- •
ded in Moscow to accomodate several thousand students.
from the underdeveloped countries. Obviousiy it is in-·
tended that education be given along communist lines ..
The name of the murdered Congolese communist sympathizer, Patrice Lumumba, is supposed to attract all the·
people previously or still under colonial rule in such man-·
ner as to convince them of the benevolence and unselfishness of the first socialist world State and to win for
Prague trustworthy and grateful supporters who will co-·
operate, together with their respective nations, with the
communist States. This new school of higher learning,
equipped to hand out an abundance of scholarships, hopes.
to draw promising young folk to its halls, serve as a central training center for specialists and radiate like a lighthouse of Soviet scientific and cultural achievement into,
all four corners of the globe.
A similar university has now opened its doors in
Czecho-Slovakia, the new "University of November 17."
Its first students were the high school graduates of the
class of 1962. By no means a competitor to the Soviet
Russian Lumumba University, this new Czech institu-•
tion does hope to improve international and political relations by peaceful means. Economic factors play an important role, too, since the CSR, with its growing industrial potential, is seeking to dispose of its products in
new markets as they open up. To this end it has need of"
native experts in the various foreign countries concerned.
The very name of this new school confirms this surmise;
after all, its purpose is to strike a blow at the German
Federal Republic, presently a serious bar to Czech eco-·
nomic expansion. Actually there is no connection between
the closing of the Czech univ•~rsities on November 17,
1939 by the National Socialists and this new school. The
name has been chosen strictly to serve domestic and
foreign propaganda. ·
�SLOVAKIA
69
At present there are 1,800 foreign students in the
CSR from 70 different countries. The Africans are the
largest group, welded together in the Union of African
Students (Ucitelske noviny, Novem'b er 17, 1961). Fifty
per cent of them are students of medicine, thirty per cent
technology and about twenty per cent are enrolled in economics courses. The remainder are pursuing other specialized fields. All foreign - for the most part colored students are registered at the School of Economics in
Prague. (Tvorba 47-1961). A new regulation has gone
into effect, however, stipulating that new arrivals shall
belong to the new university, be registered there and put
into strict camps where they will be briefed in preparation for their studies and groomed for contact and association with the native population. In October 1961, for
example, 44 students arrived from Cambodia, Mexico, Cameroun, Angola, Chile, Columbia, and Argentina to enroll
in a one-year course in the Czech language. They were
quartered in a former court house building in Dobruschka
in northern Bohemia.. In November, 1961, 120 Cuban
students of a total of 200 were sent to Senec and Topolcianky for a course in Slovak, while the rest presumably
went to Dobruschka.
It would seem that so far the foreign students have
caused the universities quite a headache, partly because
of the varying types of college preparatory training and
also because of difficulties with the language. A variety of political reasons are also involved. These problems have led the a.uthorities to formulate new regulations for foreign students which include, as far as the
University 17th of November is concerned, courses in
the Czech and Slovak languages, plus a technical knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and
descriptive geometry. The language courses given at the
Slovak centers of Senec and Topolcianky are part of
preparatory schooling for as many as 100 students (Praca 298-61). The first group of freshmen were registered
with great ceremony on December 12, 1961, by the rector of the new university, Dr. Jaroslav Martinie. The
�70
SLOVAKIA
group consists of students from Iraq, Iran, Cameroun,
Jordania, Mali, Sudan and several dozen other African,
Asian, Latin American and European States, as well as
students from Bulgaria and even the Soviet sector of
Germany. The student in this age group may enroll at one
of the other Czech or Slovak schools of higher learning
or may continue his studies at the two other schools of the
University 17th of November, i.e., the School of Natural
Sciences and Technology and/or the School of Social Sciences, which are to open their doors at the beginning of
the 1962-63 school year.
The difference between the two kinds of university
education lies in the fact that schooling at the regular
Czech universities applies to Czecho ..Slovak conditions and
is very heavily specialized, even where curricula have
been altered to meet the needs of individual forei·g n students, especially from the underdeveloped countries. On
the other hand, courses at the University 17th of November are much broader and not as thorough. At the School
of Natural Sciences and Technology, for example, teacher
training courses will be introduced plus construction engineering. This decision was made, according to Rector
Martinie, because political economy in the underdeveloped ,
countries is still in its infancy. It will take time for it to
reach a point where special training in that field becomes
requisite. For the present a student interested, for example, in bridge construction must attend one of the
other universities.
In the School of Social Sciences, teacher training
courses will be given for those desiring to teach in the
elementary and secondary schols and a course in social
sciences, combined with the training of political functionaries, will also be added. The regular schools (faculties) within the University of November 17 are counting
of complete or partial instruction in one of the world languages (English, French, Spanish), to facilitate communication between instructors and students. One year's instruction in Czech or Slovak alone will not suffice.
Five or six years are required for a student to com-
�SLOVAKIA
71
plete his university education in a specialized field such
as technology. This period is one year longer for foreign
students requiring language training. Curriculum planners have proposed shortening the length of study for
.foreigners in certain subjects while keeping the quality
at university level, a step that would speed up the training
-0f national specialists for the countries concerned. The
.subject matter would be highly concentrated and much
more practical than theoretical.
The University of November 17, with its three schools,
is intended to become a uniform, State center for the training of foreign students in the CSR. It seems quite likely
that study at this university will become more and more
.strict, new curricula will be worked out and rigid controls
put into operation. Its status is to be raised by granting
it authority to issue diplomas and by setting certain standards of achievement. Those of the School of Social Sciences are of particular interest as this school trains teachers for elementary and secondary schools and offers courses in the particular field of social sciences which is combined with the training of political functionaries. This fact
seems to characterize most acurately the purpose behind
the founding of this new university.
Czecho-Slovak teachers are also assigned to tasks
abroad. They assist, for example, in the African school
system where they not only teach but also "organize the
school system" (Mlada Fronta 285/61). An exhibition of
polytechnical teaching in Conakry is designed to popularize Czecho-Slovak experiences, although this type of teaching has been introdueed in Czecho-Slovakia itself only a
short time ago for experimental reasons. Furthermore the
inhabitants of Africa are shown pictures of the education
and culture of the CSR, a culture to which the Communists
themselves have contributed but very little, for the culture
of Czecho-Slovakia is still minted by an older, Occidental
past.
SLOVAK LESSONS - a two year course for adults
is still available. Bound in cloth - $3.50.
�
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
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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
68
SLOVAKIA
A "LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY" IN PRAGUE
By Adolf Tosch
Approximately one year ago a university was foun- •
ded in Moscow to accomodate several thousand students.
from the underdeveloped countries. Obviousiy it is in-·
tended that education be given along communist lines ..
The name of the murdered Congolese communist sympathizer, Patrice Lumumba, is supposed to attract all the·
people previously or still under colonial rule in such man-·
ner as to convince them of the benevolence and unselfishness of the first socialist world State and to win for
Prague trustworthy and grateful supporters who will co-·
operate, together with their respective nations, with the
communist States. This new school of higher learning,
equipped to hand out an abundance of scholarships, hopes.
to draw promising young folk to its halls, serve as a central training center for specialists and radiate like a lighthouse of Soviet scientific and cultural achievement into,
all four corners of the globe.
A similar university has now opened its doors in
Czecho-Slovakia, the new "University of November 17."
Its first students were the high school graduates of the
class of 1962. By no means a competitor to the Soviet
Russian Lumumba University, this new Czech institu-•
tion does hope to improve international and political relations by peaceful means. Economic factors play an important role, too, since the CSR, with its growing industrial potential, is seeking to dispose of its products in
new markets as they open up. To this end it has need of"
native experts in the various foreign countries concerned.
The very name of this new school confirms this surmise;
after all, its purpose is to strike a blow at the German
Federal Republic, presently a serious bar to Czech eco-·
nomic expansion. Actually there is no connection between
the closing of the Czech univ•~rsities on November 17,
1939 by the National Socialists and this new school. The
name has been chosen strictly to serve domestic and
foreign propaganda. ·
SLOVAKIA
69
At present there are 1,800 foreign students in the
CSR from 70 different countries. The Africans are the
largest group, welded together in the Union of African
Students (Ucitelske noviny, Novem'b er 17, 1961). Fifty
per cent of them are students of medicine, thirty per cent
technology and about twenty per cent are enrolled in economics courses. The remainder are pursuing other specialized fields. All foreign - for the most part colored students are registered at the School of Economics in
Prague. (Tvorba 47-1961). A new regulation has gone
into effect, however, stipulating that new arrivals shall
belong to the new university, be registered there and put
into strict camps where they will be briefed in preparation for their studies and groomed for contact and association with the native population. In October 1961, for
example, 44 students arrived from Cambodia, Mexico, Cameroun, Angola, Chile, Columbia, and Argentina to enroll
in a one-year course in the Czech language. They were
quartered in a former court house building in Dobruschka
in northern Bohemia.. In November, 1961, 120 Cuban
students of a total of 200 were sent to Senec and Topolcianky for a course in Slovak, while the rest presumably
went to Dobruschka.
It would seem that so far the foreign students have
caused the universities quite a headache, partly because
of the varying types of college preparatory training and
also because of difficulties with the language. A variety of political reasons are also involved. These problems have led the a.uthorities to formulate new regulations for foreign students which include, as far as the
University 17th of November is concerned, courses in
the Czech and Slovak languages, plus a technical knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and
descriptive geometry. The language courses given at the
Slovak centers of Senec and Topolcianky are part of
preparatory schooling for as many as 100 students (Praca 298-61). The first group of freshmen were registered
with great ceremony on December 12, 1961, by the rector of the new university, Dr. Jaroslav Martinie. The
70
SLOVAKIA
group consists of students from Iraq, Iran, Cameroun,
Jordania, Mali, Sudan and several dozen other African,
Asian, Latin American and European States, as well as
students from Bulgaria and even the Soviet sector of
Germany. The student in this age group may enroll at one
of the other Czech or Slovak schools of higher learning
or may continue his studies at the two other schools of the
University 17th of November, i.e., the School of Natural
Sciences and Technology and/or the School of Social Sciences, which are to open their doors at the beginning of
the 1962-63 school year.
The difference between the two kinds of university
education lies in the fact that schooling at the regular
Czech universities applies to Czecho ..Slovak conditions and
is very heavily specialized, even where curricula have
been altered to meet the needs of individual forei·g n students, especially from the underdeveloped countries. On
the other hand, courses at the University 17th of November are much broader and not as thorough. At the School
of Natural Sciences and Technology, for example, teacher
training courses will be introduced plus construction engineering. This decision was made, according to Rector
Martinie, because political economy in the underdeveloped ,
countries is still in its infancy. It will take time for it to
reach a point where special training in that field becomes
requisite. For the present a student interested, for example, in bridge construction must attend one of the
other universities.
In the School of Social Sciences, teacher training
courses will be given for those desiring to teach in the
elementary and secondary schols and a course in social
sciences, combined with the training of political functionaries, will also be added. The regular schools (faculties) within the University of November 17 are counting
of complete or partial instruction in one of the world languages (English, French, Spanish), to facilitate communication between instructors and students. One year's instruction in Czech or Slovak alone will not suffice.
Five or six years are required for a student to com-
SLOVAKIA
71
plete his university education in a specialized field such
as technology. This period is one year longer for foreign
students requiring language training. Curriculum planners have proposed shortening the length of study for
.foreigners in certain subjects while keeping the quality
at university level, a step that would speed up the training
-0f national specialists for the countries concerned. The
.subject matter would be highly concentrated and much
more practical than theoretical.
The University of November 17, with its three schools,
is intended to become a uniform, State center for the training of foreign students in the CSR. It seems quite likely
that study at this university will become more and more
.strict, new curricula will be worked out and rigid controls
put into operation. Its status is to be raised by granting
it authority to issue diplomas and by setting certain standards of achievement. Those of the School of Social Sciences are of particular interest as this school trains teachers for elementary and secondary schools and offers courses in the particular field of social sciences which is combined with the training of political functionaries. This fact
seems to characterize most acurately the purpose behind
the founding of this new university.
Czecho-Slovak teachers are also assigned to tasks
abroad. They assist, for example, in the African school
system where they not only teach but also "organize the
school system" (Mlada Fronta 285/61). An exhibition of
polytechnical teaching in Conakry is designed to popularize Czecho-Slovak experiences, although this type of teaching has been introdueed in Czecho-Slovakia itself only a
short time ago for experimental reasons. Furthermore the
inhabitants of Africa are shown pictures of the education
and culture of the CSR, a culture to which the Communists
themselves have contributed but very little, for the culture
of Czecho-Slovakia is still minted by an older, Occidental
past.
SLOVAK LESSONS - a two year course for adults
is still available. Bound in cloth - $3.50.
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
A "Lumumba University" in Prague
Description
An account of the resource
Adolf Tosch
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 68-71
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Tosch, Adolf
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
name
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a390369a47f2ec6a9d55d5165a7b6612.pdf
af8032c28cfccc20c42200d15af957f1
PDF Text
Text
72
SLOVAKIA
MAJORITY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FREE
CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
A recent statement of the so-called Council of Free
Czechoslovakia revealed the break-up of that organization.
Leading members left the US-subsidized Council and founded a new organization in exile calling it "Committee of
Free Czechoslovakia." The Committe's secretaries, Arnost
Heidrich and Jozef Lettrich, claimed that the Council was
composed "only of National Socialists and satellites of Dr.
Peter Zenkl" and that the members of free democratic
Czech parties had no seat and say in it.
The new Committee is said to represent the Catholic
Czech P eoples Party, the Czech Agrarian Republican Party, the Slovak Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, as well as Czech, Slovak and Carpatho-Ukrainian personages of no party affiliation.
Proponents of self-determination and independence for
Slovakia are excluded.
Among those who quit the Council of Free Czechoslovakia were: V. Bernard, Josef Cerny, V. Fedinec, A.
Heidrich, Fedor Hod.fa (son of the late Czech premier),
Holub, M. Kvetko , J . L ettrich, T . Lipcik, V. Majer, J. Mrazek, Stefan Osusky, Adolf Prochazka, L. Sliva, and M.
Tumlifova. Dr. V. Brdlik, who was also named among the
dissenters, did not confirm the news that he, too, had
left the Council, saying that he did not know anything
about it.
The present quarrels among Czechs and Slovaks in
exile are mainly caused by the questions of citizenship
and membership in the Assembly of Captive European
Nations (ACEN). Regarding the question of citizenship,
the dissenters claim, the Council officers violated the constitution by admitting members who no longer were Czecho-Slovak citizens. The Council on the other hand, holds
that Czech citizenship is not a prerequisite for membership in the Council.
More serious is the dispute about the Council's membership in ACEN. The Assembly of Captive European Nations accepts as members only persons who have main-
�SLOVAKIA
73
tained their former citizenship in East European States.
According to the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, this regulation does not affect membership in the member organizations who send their representatives to ACEN.
The Assembly of Captive European Nations is, indeed, intended as an organization for exiled politicians.
It was launched and financed with U. S. help. Its members receive a modest salary. Some of the older exiled politicians have only this to live on.
Besides there is a parallel organization, the "Ameri<!an Friends of Captive European Nations," which is
<!omposed of American citizens only.
The members of the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, including some of the most prominent Czech and
Slovak politicians in exile, managed to receive recognition as representatives of Czecho.1Slovakia by the Assembly of Captive European Nations. Later the ACEN
main executive committee revised its opinion and reserved six seats of the Czecho-Slovak delegation to the
Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The Council, however, is
claiming all seats for itself.
From the news thus far received it seems as if most
prominent Czech and Slovak exile leaders have joined the
dissenting Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, leaving behind in the Council only Dr. Peter Zenkl (who after the
war served under Communist Party boss Klement Gottwald as deputy prime minister), Dr. Juraj Slavik (a prewar Czecho-Slovak ambassador to Warsaw and native Slovak), and Dr. Jifi Horak. - S. B.
"CZEOHOSLOVAKISM VERSUS AMERICANISM" an e:x;pose of ,the pr()-!Soviet "National Froniters" in the socalled Council of Free Czechoslovakia - is a 48 page booklet pU!blished by the SlovaJk League of Ameiiica, which
should be read by every one seeking the answer to the
question o:f how "Ozecho ...Slovruk democracy" conrverted to a
"people's democ!l"a;cy." Send 25 cents (coin or stamps) to
the SDOVA.Ki_IA for your copy today.
�
72
SLOVAKIA
MAJORITY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FREE
CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
A recent statement of the so-called Council of Free
Czechoslovakia revealed the break-up of that organization.
Leading members left the US-subsidized Council and founded a new organization in exile calling it "Committee of
Free Czechoslovakia." The Committe's secretaries, Arnost
Heidrich and Jozef Lettrich, claimed that the Council was
composed "only of National Socialists and satellites of Dr.
Peter Zenkl" and that the members of free democratic
Czech parties had no seat and say in it.
The new Committee is said to represent the Catholic
Czech P eoples Party, the Czech Agrarian Republican Party, the Slovak Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, as well as Czech, Slovak and Carpatho-Ukrainian personages of no party affiliation.
Proponents of self-determination and independence for
Slovakia are excluded.
Among those who quit the Council of Free Czechoslovakia were: V. Bernard, Josef Cerny, V. Fedinec, A.
Heidrich, Fedor Hod.fa (son of the late Czech premier),
Holub, M. Kvetko , J . L ettrich, T . Lipcik, V. Majer, J. Mrazek, Stefan Osusky, Adolf Prochazka, L. Sliva, and M.
Tumlifova. Dr. V. Brdlik, who was also named among the
dissenters, did not confirm the news that he, too, had
left the Council, saying that he did not know anything
about it.
The present quarrels among Czechs and Slovaks in
exile are mainly caused by the questions of citizenship
and membership in the Assembly of Captive European
Nations (ACEN). Regarding the question of citizenship,
the dissenters claim, the Council officers violated the constitution by admitting members who no longer were Czecho-Slovak citizens. The Council on the other hand, holds
that Czech citizenship is not a prerequisite for membership in the Council.
More serious is the dispute about the Council's membership in ACEN. The Assembly of Captive European Nations accepts as members only persons who have main-
�SLOVAKIA
73
tained their former citizenship in East European States.
According to the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, this regulation does not affect membership in the member organizations who send their representatives to ACEN.
The Assembly of Captive European Nations is, indeed, intended as an organization for exiled politicians.
It was launched and financed with U. S. help. Its members receive a modest salary. Some of the older exiled politicians have only this to live on.
Besides there is a parallel organization, the "Ameri<!an Friends of Captive European Nations," which is
<!omposed of American citizens only.
The members of the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, including some of the most prominent Czech and
Slovak politicians in exile, managed to receive recognition as representatives of Czecho.1Slovakia by the Assembly of Captive European Nations. Later the ACEN
main executive committee revised its opinion and reserved six seats of the Czecho-Slovak delegation to the
Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The Council, however, is
claiming all seats for itself.
From the news thus far received it seems as if most
prominent Czech and Slovak exile leaders have joined the
dissenting Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, leaving behind in the Council only Dr. Peter Zenkl (who after the
war served under Communist Party boss Klement Gottwald as deputy prime minister), Dr. Juraj Slavik (a prewar Czecho-Slovak ambassador to Warsaw and native Slovak), and Dr. Jifi Horak. - S. B.
"CZEOHOSLOVAKISM VERSUS AMERICANISM" an e:x;pose of ,the pr()-!Soviet "National Froniters" in the socalled Council of Free Czechoslovakia - is a 48 page booklet pU!blished by the SlovaJk League of Ameiiica, which
should be read by every one seeking the answer to the
question o:f how "Ozecho ...Slovruk democracy" conrverted to a
"people's democ!l"a;cy." Send 25 cents (coin or stamps) to
the SDOVA.Ki_IA for your copy today.
�
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
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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
72
SLOVAKIA
MAJORITY QUITS "COUNCIL OF FREE
CZECHOSLOVAKIA"
A recent statement of the so-called Council of Free
Czechoslovakia revealed the break-up of that organization.
Leading members left the US-subsidized Council and founded a new organization in exile calling it "Committee of
Free Czechoslovakia." The Committe's secretaries, Arnost
Heidrich and Jozef Lettrich, claimed that the Council was
composed "only of National Socialists and satellites of Dr.
Peter Zenkl" and that the members of free democratic
Czech parties had no seat and say in it.
The new Committee is said to represent the Catholic
Czech P eoples Party, the Czech Agrarian Republican Party, the Slovak Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, as well as Czech, Slovak and Carpatho-Ukrainian personages of no party affiliation.
Proponents of self-determination and independence for
Slovakia are excluded.
Among those who quit the Council of Free Czechoslovakia were: V. Bernard, Josef Cerny, V. Fedinec, A.
Heidrich, Fedor Hod.fa (son of the late Czech premier),
Holub, M. Kvetko , J . L ettrich, T . Lipcik, V. Majer, J. Mrazek, Stefan Osusky, Adolf Prochazka, L. Sliva, and M.
Tumlifova. Dr. V. Brdlik, who was also named among the
dissenters, did not confirm the news that he, too, had
left the Council, saying that he did not know anything
about it.
The present quarrels among Czechs and Slovaks in
exile are mainly caused by the questions of citizenship
and membership in the Assembly of Captive European
Nations (ACEN). Regarding the question of citizenship,
the dissenters claim, the Council officers violated the constitution by admitting members who no longer were Czecho-Slovak citizens. The Council on the other hand, holds
that Czech citizenship is not a prerequisite for membership in the Council.
More serious is the dispute about the Council's membership in ACEN. The Assembly of Captive European Nations accepts as members only persons who have main-
SLOVAKIA
73
tained their former citizenship in East European States.
According to the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, this regulation does not affect membership in the member organizations who send their representatives to ACEN.
The Assembly of Captive European Nations is, indeed, intended as an organization for exiled politicians.
It was launched and financed with U. S. help. Its members receive a modest salary. Some of the older exiled politicians have only this to live on.
Besides there is a parallel organization, the "Ameri<!an Friends of Captive European Nations," which is
<!omposed of American citizens only.
The members of the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, including some of the most prominent Czech and
Slovak politicians in exile, managed to receive recognition as representatives of Czecho.1Slovakia by the Assembly of Captive European Nations. Later the ACEN
main executive committee revised its opinion and reserved six seats of the Czecho-Slovak delegation to the
Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The Council, however, is
claiming all seats for itself.
From the news thus far received it seems as if most
prominent Czech and Slovak exile leaders have joined the
dissenting Committee of Free Czechoslovakia, leaving behind in the Council only Dr. Peter Zenkl (who after the
war served under Communist Party boss Klement Gottwald as deputy prime minister), Dr. Juraj Slavik (a prewar Czecho-Slovak ambassador to Warsaw and native Slovak), and Dr. Jifi Horak. - S. B.
"CZEOHOSLOVAKISM VERSUS AMERICANISM" an e:x;pose of ,the pr()-!Soviet "National Froniters" in the socalled Council of Free Czechoslovakia - is a 48 page booklet pU!blished by the SlovaJk League of Ameiiica, which
should be read by every one seeking the answer to the
question o:f how "Ozecho ...Slovruk democracy" conrverted to a
"people's democ!l"a;cy." Send 25 cents (coin or stamps) to
the SDOVA.Ki_IA for your copy today.
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
Majority Quits "Council of Free Czechoslovakia"
Description
An account of the resource
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 72-73
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/18568cf87072b2d0c785fb1de512d85a.pdf
fee1e957cbc49432acfcc6df3a2354d6
PDF Text
Text
74
SLOVAKIA
CZECH REDS ROOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
For over a year transports have been rolling from
Polish and former German eastern ports, loaded with
war material for Castro's Cuba. Czech weapons depots
and barracks have been combed over and practically all
German rifles and heavy artillery left from World War
II were prepared for shipment, some of which were still
being used by Czech soldiers.
The Czech general staff readily dispensed with tanks
of the T-34 type, however, and the Skoda anti-aircraft
guns, since they are being regularly replaced by the latest
T-54 tanks and anti-aircraft missiles. The Cuban crisis
gave the Czechs an opportunity to discard some of their
old supplies and pocket a pretty penny on the deal. The
tanks and heavy guns were shipped without munition,
which was allegedly "forgotten."
More than 500 Czech officers and non-coms are said
to have entered Cuban barracks along with the aforementioned supplies, where they immediately set to work to
train Cuban men and women in their use.
During the big military parade on J anue.ry 4, 1961
- celebrating the second 3jnniversary of the Cuban revolutionaries - there were even Czech officers and noncoms seated in the tanks that filed past Fidel Castro. It
may be assumed that the natives were still not adept
enough at running them to take over the controls themselves. They may be now.
While all this is going on in Cuba, Prague is turning
out tons of propaganda for Cuban consumption. Castro
and his henchmen can rely on their Czech helpers whose
methods and measures have been tried out successfully in
other countries.
Prague credit to Castro to the tune of $20 million
was cited in Novotny's propaganda organ in small print.
This sum does not seem to have been exhausted, for at
the close of 1960 president of the Cuban National Bank,
Commandant Dr. Ernesto Guevaro was reported in Prague
�SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
I
�
74
SLOVAKIA
CZECH REDS ROOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
For over a year transports have been rolling from
Polish and former German eastern ports, loaded with
war material for Castro's Cuba. Czech weapons depots
and barracks have been combed over and practically all
German rifles and heavy artillery left from World War
II were prepared for shipment, some of which were still
being used by Czech soldiers.
The Czech general staff readily dispensed with tanks
of the T-34 type, however, and the Skoda anti-aircraft
guns, since they are being regularly replaced by the latest
T-54 tanks and anti-aircraft missiles. The Cuban crisis
gave the Czechs an opportunity to discard some of their
old supplies and pocket a pretty penny on the deal. The
tanks and heavy guns were shipped without munition,
which was allegedly "forgotten."
More than 500 Czech officers and non-coms are said
to have entered Cuban barracks along with the aforementioned supplies, where they immediately set to work to
train Cuban men and women in their use.
During the big military parade on J anue.ry 4, 1961
- celebrating the second 3jnniversary of the Cuban revolutionaries - there were even Czech officers and noncoms seated in the tanks that filed past Fidel Castro. It
may be assumed that the natives were still not adept
enough at running them to take over the controls themselves. They may be now.
While all this is going on in Cuba, Prague is turning
out tons of propaganda for Cuban consumption. Castro
and his henchmen can rely on their Czech helpers whose
methods and measures have been tried out successfully in
other countries.
Prague credit to Castro to the tune of $20 million
was cited in Novotny's propaganda organ in small print.
This sum does not seem to have been exhausted, for at
the close of 1960 president of the Cuban National Bank,
Commandant Dr. Ernesto Guevaro was reported in Prague
�SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
I
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
1962, Vol. 12
Description
An account of the resource
Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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
1962
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.
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74
SLOVAKIA
CZECH REDS ROOST RED AIMS IN CUBA
For over a year transports have been rolling from
Polish and former German eastern ports, loaded with
war material for Castro's Cuba. Czech weapons depots
and barracks have been combed over and practically all
German rifles and heavy artillery left from World War
II were prepared for shipment, some of which were still
being used by Czech soldiers.
The Czech general staff readily dispensed with tanks
of the T-34 type, however, and the Skoda anti-aircraft
guns, since they are being regularly replaced by the latest
T-54 tanks and anti-aircraft missiles. The Cuban crisis
gave the Czechs an opportunity to discard some of their
old supplies and pocket a pretty penny on the deal. The
tanks and heavy guns were shipped without munition,
which was allegedly "forgotten."
More than 500 Czech officers and non-coms are said
to have entered Cuban barracks along with the aforementioned supplies, where they immediately set to work to
train Cuban men and women in their use.
During the big military parade on J anue.ry 4, 1961
- celebrating the second 3jnniversary of the Cuban revolutionaries - there were even Czech officers and noncoms seated in the tanks that filed past Fidel Castro. It
may be assumed that the natives were still not adept
enough at running them to take over the controls themselves. They may be now.
While all this is going on in Cuba, Prague is turning
out tons of propaganda for Cuban consumption. Castro
and his henchmen can rely on their Czech helpers whose
methods and measures have been tried out successfully in
other countries.
Prague credit to Castro to the tune of $20 million
was cited in Novotny's propaganda organ in small print.
This sum does not seem to have been exhausted, for at
the close of 1960 president of the Cuban National Bank,
Commandant Dr. Ernesto Guevaro was reported in Prague
SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
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
Czech Reds Boost Red Aims in Cuba
Description
An account of the resource
Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962
pp. 74-75
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962
-
https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ca7006fb5736f99986eeaa5048b17003.pdf
409b536755270fbf3f251b1d95f3bbb9
PDF Text
Text
SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
I
�76
SLOVAKIA
His book will, theirefore, nalburally stimllllate controversies.
By his own ad'mi!ssfon in the
Introduction to his wock, Prof.essor Oddo saw tlhat part o:f his
task lay in hrupintg to "exipos·e
and exiped myths which, for ooe
r•eason or other, have fownd their
way into the long and poi,gnarut
history of the Slovak people."
Basically, the author attempts to
expo.se the myths that (1) the
Czechs a•nd tlhe Slovaks are now
and always have been a cultural,
linguishc and nationau uniity; (2)
that Czedh◊'"Slova!lda was the "picture demdcracy" of the post-Versailles Europe; and (3,) that the
S1'ovak Repu[Jjlilc was not a natural d·e vclopment in the histocy
of the Slovak people.
The author gaithered many
availalb le s-ources and inv,e stigated
arguments pro and con to prove
his points and draw his conclusions, and they .ire mostly correct. His scy1e is clear and plain.
Studenlts di history, un.fiortunatel,y,
may be inconivenienced in the a["rangement of ref.erences, which
the allllthor mentions at the end
of tJhe book a<nd will mi1Ss footnotes.
Since the thesis of a distinct
national, cultural and linguistic
Slo\'ak enrtity has been generally
aooepted in recent years, the autho,r will! not encouIJ1ter much
objection on this point from the
students od' Central European history. HoweveT, as for t'he ''<pictmre democracy" olf pre,wair Czecho.:slo"'1kia, many readers, aocustome'd •to the sta·ndardized picture
presented for over fourr decades
in so milillY wofiks, may hesi'taite
to accept P,rof. Oddo's ,n,ewcypresented ve·r sion, ev,e n though
it has been corrolborated by the
views of C. A. Ma1Cartney, H. A.
Gilbbons, F . Lee Benns, and some
Slovak historians or by suich "Czechoslovak" politicians a,s the for-
mer Premier MiJ.a,n Rodi.a (in his.
Federation of Central Europe).
The most di'Dfiicult task for
American readers and students.
of modern hiistoriY will be, of
course, to· accept Prod'. Oddo's inte11pretation of the origin and politkal organization od' the Slowik
Repulblic which emerged in Central Eui-o,pe on Mairch 14, 1009,.
aifter Olecho-JS1'oviakia had been
abandCl'Iled art; Muni!ch by the Eu,ro,pean Great P-O<Wers, a,nd thus.
left rut the mercy of Hitler's Germany. The war pl'opag•a nda and
several symposia, inspired mostlry
by eimLgre poli'ticians and intellectuals, injected into the minds
.of millions who fought German
exipansion am adverse image oif
Sloviaki,a and her wartime existe,nice as a Repulblic. ]t cannot be
assumed ,t hat Rr.of. Oddo's book
will su:fifice to exipel aH the mtYths
aioorut the or~g,m, interna<tional
recogruition and war pooicy of the
Slovak Repulbli'c, which had allre,ady penetm<ted into the Ameirican hi:storiograiphy, before several
seri•ous and comprehensive wor-ks
were written on the ba,s is of scholariLy r,e search and 1nlteirnaitio,n,al
ddcwments. The diidlf<i:culty ror Canadian and Amerilcan readei-s in
aclcepting P<raf. Oddo's inter,pretation od' ·t he Slovalk Repu:blic will
perh'<!.lps be greatly reduced in
li:ght af present-day Aaneri<ean policy and heav.y responsihility tn
prevenrtJ1ng
newly
•i ndependent
small artd buffer countries fir,o m
either being eX1¢0Jted by orr seeking proteotion in a/Jiliance or aid
from adrvers.a,ries attemptin:g to
upset the bal:mce of power.
Slovakia
and
Its
People com-
prises twelve chayters and, in addition to outl<ines cxf historical
events, it deals also with the oultul"al and elconomilc liife of Slo~
v,aikia. One charpter deals with
SLovak emtg,r ation and its role in
Slovaik naltionail lilre. Severall mlllPS,
�SLOVAKIA
bi'bliogl'arpbiy and index add to
the value of the book which,
conitain·i.n,g the basic in,formation
about Sloviakia and the Slovaks in
a popular rather bhan scholarlry
style, is a new contr~bution to
English written literatul'e on Sfovailcia and has its va1ue for Oil"·
diina[1y re•a ders as well as for
scholars.
J. M. Kirschbaum,
Unw,er,silty of Montreall.
(A re!pcint from Sfavic and East
Eurropeam, Etudies, Vol. V'I, Part
I-TI, Montreal, 1'962).
)Jg
H.
)Jg
)Jg
G. Adler: Die Jude n in
Deutschland. From the Enlightenment to Nationa,l SoMucialism. Kosel-Verlag,
nich, 1960; 1718 pp., DM 6.80.
Nationial Socialism produced no,
thing rea:&liy new, particularly antiSemitism, alth-0ug,h it remained
for said regiime to exercise it
in tihe modern age in a•n arpocaty.ptic way. H. G. Adler is a Jew
.fu--0m Pra,gue, survivor of the
concentration camps oif 'l\h&esienstadt and Auschwitz, who has
arua:yq;ed the origins oi anti-Semitism, the Emancipation, and
the plight of the Jews in Germany.
The results af the author's e.ndea,v-0r are procu,r,a ble in a small
book proli,filc with quotes and
sources. Adler candidly acknowledges tha't durin1g the Middle
A,g.es a Jewish prdblem was possilble only in Gernnany because
the European naJtionrul States, ruf.
ter a period of severe oppression
"divested themselves of their
Jews" by means of expu]sio,n,,
England in 1200, France in li306,
(,a,n d after ,temrpora,r,y readmitta'Ilce, a.g ain in moo), Spain in
1492 and Portugal in 1497."
IHa'tred of tihe Jews was due
for centuries to their belonging
to a dilfifer-elllt religion,; the sol u-
77
tion laiY ther,e fore in conversion
to Christianity or by remedying
their "otherness." Heine spoke of
his rbaiptism as the "ticket of adm[ssion to EUI'O'Pean cul'twre."
Yet the position of the Jews in
German,y was as varied as the
ver,y diirversilfied nature of the
First Reich itsellf. As lalte as 18'17.
for example, the English prov:ince of Haillil<)lVer quite firmly
resisted the proposed emancipation oif the Jews which had been
souwht by Ohristians and Jews
alilke ever since the Enlightenment.
Amter the founding of the Second Reich re!Lgious dimference
was, to be su'l"e, no longer the
tr-ue cause of anti-semitism, fur
i.n, the Bismarclci-an constitution
one's religious alffiliation wa-s irrelevant. Adler ciites in addiltion
to the long-standing religious aspect of the Jewish question German anH-Semites like the BexHn cour't preacher StockeQ", the
Viennese Btirgermeister Lueger,
Richa,r d Wa-gner, Lagarde, and
FrLtsch. Accord!ing to these a pe,rsom.'s race and not reliigion was the
cause of anti.Jewish feclilnlg. One
noites a breach in devclopm~nts
that is not bridged by any explanation and one wonders wlh,y
this sooprising ohange. Was it due
to the rapid increase aifrer 187'1
of Jeiwi9h ba,nki,n,g and trading
firms, the en:tirance of Jewish
laiw,y ers, doctors and teaichers .into 1Pr-01fessions ,t hat had been
barred to them hrither.to? Was ilt
due to envy of their quick so-cial
climb? Even ducing the period
of rcli,gious anlti.Jiewish hatred the
C'll!rse 'IJ!is blood be on us and
on our chi'ldren" was not the sole
reason for tJhe pogiroms, bult a'lso
the desire to be rid of the annoyi111g oreditors. A similar trend
developed i.n many large German
cities in the "golden twenties."
German anti-Semitism, in the
�78
SLOVAKIA
final! anal'Ysis, has come to be a
stain not only on the name dI
Germany for years to coone but
has actually estram,g ed one of the
most M'dent German prataigonists
thrnughO'Ut the world, the German speaking J ews. Adler's book
sh01Ws •primariliy, too, th•e zeal with
which the Gerunan Jews all o·v er
the world were read1Y to serve
t!h•eir people, a fact whioh is seldom reim.embered toda'Y.
1
L. Rainalter.
31:
31:
31:
Robert Kee: Refugee World, Oxford University Press, London., 11961-; '1531 pag,es.
" ... to h-av•e been a refugee
over a lo'lllg period of years is to
hav-e built up an inner world cxf
feelirug and experience dI which
the outsider ca,n often have liittle
idea. " Dt is this inner woI"ld, as
~hl as tihe outer world, that Mr.
Kee brings to the r,e ader in a s·eries of peI"sonal visits to refugees in German'Y aind Al\lS'tlria, in
camps, in private huts, in aibandoned buses, wherever th•ey happen to be.
One irnimediateliy feels one is
chatting with Ulmcinia•ns, Slo:viaks,,
Ju,goslaivs, Boles, Riumanians, wi1fh
•ex,pe1lees, displaced persons, aind
with escapees. Possessed oif a
rare power of descrifption, aruthor
Eee makes every new contact
with his c·haracters a unique experience.
Unfortunat,e is Mr. Kee's relferenJc,e to an elder,ly couple he
visited in TI"aiskirchen, Austr\i•a,
as "Czech Volksdellltscbe." The designation "Czech Volksdeutsche"
is a misnomer, for the very word
"V:olkdsd·eultoohie" means ethnic
Germa,ns, and, in this case, Volilcsdeutsche from
Czecho-&lovakia
coulld only be ei'1lher S.udeten Germans or the German e11hnic peop1e from one of the v•airious "language islands" withirn Czecho-
Slovalcia, e .g., Spisska Nova Ves
or the (Spls) Mountain region.
SHgh'tl'Y painful is th-e second
incorr.e!ct r,eference ,to the s-aane
couple as "the old Czech cou~le
who had wailk•e d out dI Communist Czecho.,S}ov-akia because the
aruthorities had tried to suggest
that they should do heaV1Y work
to keep a'1iive." Painlful because
tlhe VoLksdeutsche, Sude'ten Germans, and a.11 other "expellees od'
German ethnic origin" were expressly denied any of the ands
a1lotted to other displ,aced pffsons (.DPs) under the IIRIO (lnternahonal Refugee Or.ganization)
character, for the sole reason
that they wer,e German. '11he clause
that stipulated thei,r exolus1on,
pla,ced them in the same bracket
with ''Nazis and criminals."
The outstanding featur.e of Mr.
Kee's book is its drive,home
power which acqualints the reader
not with viague and shad'O'W(Y
forms but wit,h flesh a,n d blood
men, women and children.
Graitifyi111g is the fair ev>a,luation of Germany's part in ha1n,dling the refugee prdlllem that the
CO'Untry w:as •coruiironted with in
its own p!"ostra·t e post,war condition when rougMy nine mil11lion
German eXJpellees from the Gocman East were shum,ted into the
country to be housed, alothed,
£ed and employed. Mr. Kee says:
"It is poinUess to say tha.t the
Germans had themselv,es inflicted :liar more terr.ilble sulflferirug on
even more people or, wlhat is also
true, thalt the vast majority ru
the GeI"mans on whom this suif£ering was now infilicted had tacitly approved dI such things being done to other people im, the
daiys when to be •a good German was to be a good Nlazi. Hoth
mass deportations were crimes
against humanity pei,pe'tr.i.'ted for
selfish politicall interes'ts."
A point one might take ex.cep-
�SLOVAKIA
tion to the statement tha,t "the
crime against the e~e11ed Germa,ns ... was one moo:-,e of indiilferenx:e rather tlham, caliculatiion, as the Nia:lli-s' crimes had
been." These inlfCJII'lmed, know too
well that Edlwar<l Bene!'; and his
accompilii:ces planned meticulously the ex,pulsion Olf three and a
hailif mil]ion, Sudeten Germarus
and sa-i<l aJt& ordering their expuJS'ion: ''!Leave th-em om,Ly a
han<lk.e:rchief to shed their tears
in."
The aulthor is an En,glishman
wri'tling for Englli!sh r-eaders l)rimairily. This fact need not disturib
other English-i1anguage readers
for anyone whose interest runs
froon simple humam, curiosity and
corrupassion to social service field
work an<l other refugee a,n d expellee exiperience in theory an<l
pira:ctice wi1ll :filnd Mr. Kee's book
arlive an<l iruformati:ve.
Alppendix "A" giv-es a nut-shell
aicqua,inltance with r,ediugee situ1aWlorl<l War El, lllnd Alppen,dix "B"
with a few of the or.gan~zations
workiing for refugees.
M. E.W.
li(!
li(!
li(!
William L. Shirer: The Rise and
Fall of the Third Reich: A
!History of Nazi Germany, Simon and Schuster, N. Y. ,
1960; 124'5 pp., $10.00.
In the guise of olbjective histocy this volume presents a harTowim,g, massiv,e but one-sided record of unrelieved Gernnan crimes
an'd blunders. WilU.am L. Shirer,
foreign correspon<lent and news
commentator, is also on the boa,r d
of diireotors of the "Society for
the PI"evention of Wo·rl<l War m,
Inc." of Wlhich Dorothy Thompson
wrote (May 31, 11950) that it "has
conduclted a systematic campaign
a1gaimst any constructive peace
with
Gernianiy ... land
vilifi.ed
every person iln pulblic life who
79
tried to warn that procedure
alon,g MorgenJthau lines wouild encomipa-ss the ruiTI olf Eur()ll)'e."
Shirer does n:ot allow that the
Versailles Treacy was unjust (p.
58). He states that "Nazism -a nd
the Third Reic-h, in fiact were but
a lo.g ica,l conltinuation otf German
history" (p. 90). His piling up otf
Nia7li crimes, faLling to put them
iin, perspective with the crimes otf
the opponents, never in fad!; a•lludin,g to the worst Soviet crimes,
such as their brutal population
transfers and their mass ra,ping otf
not only German but -a lso Hungarian and Austrian woonen, seem
calculated to· make any wruwacy
rea'd er hate more than ever the
Gemna-n people - now our allies
who tOilerated the monstrous
Nazis, and to think of the equally
monstrous Bolsheviks, now ou<r
cold war enemies, as reaHy not
so bad!
[n pa1ges on the Nazi abuse of
SOIV'iet and Poli&h prisoners of
wair he does not once al1ude to the
Soviet mass murder of Poli-sh
odificers at Kllltyn. He never mantions General Vlassov an<l his insurgent Russi·a ns who preferred
fighting for the Germans to Living under the Soviets.
IHe gives good information on
sev,era,l German attempts to remove Hit-Ioer, three even before
'11941, but he maikes no r-etfeir.e nce
to the Morgenthau plan, Communist-inspired, which was oalcu4ated to d!'i'Ve the Germans to
desperate resistance instead of
revo:llt. F<o,r the rest, d-e spite distorti-ons and some cuea,r fa~sehoods, there is much interesiting
inlformart,ion in the book. Hitler is
depicted as an uncanrny genius,
almoslt purirtan, fa,niatical<Ly warped
on loyalty and honoir, pathologica.U,y anti.iBolshevik and anti-JewiSl'h,
aibsolute.cy a.g ainst war with the
West, but certaionl,y plotting it
ag,a'inst Poland and Russia.
�SLOVAKIA
Readirug of Hitler's crimes •a nd
tilunders in d,etail, deducting firom
facts that truly morail statesmaill•
s'hiiip anywhere .from .l ,91\8 on
could have prevenlted the colossal
miseey of World War IiI and aft:er,
makes on,e feel aibout the human
raJCe as Sw.ilflt did.
'In sum: more .harmful than good
e,ocept for trained historians.
A. J. App.
~
)lg
)lg
Ernst Bil'ke and Kurit Oberdorifer: Das bohmische Staatsrecht in
chischen
gen des
hunderts,
den deu,t sch-tscheAuseinandersetzu n•
19. und 20. Jahrpulblished 1960 by
N. D. Elwert Verla.g, Mia,rburg-Lahn; 147 pp.
The book a.fifers four a51Pects
on the question otf historic Boh•emian State Ri<glhts. While Richaro
P1aschkia presents the Cz.ooh point
of view, Helmut Slalmicka deals
with the German side of the
question. EU/gen LemJberg writes
on the Ozeich corucepts of n,ation
and State ideology. Kurt Riabl
searehes into t:he legal aspects
and co.ruf.r onts the "histock State
rights" wilth the r1ghts otf seLfdetermination at the time when
Czecho-Sllovalk<ia was created.
One k•e y to understamding
Cz.ech--German rel-ations, accords
and discords, is to stud:y the concept od' Bo'h emian State rights.
Bohemia, a const1tutional erntity
within the dld Haibsbur,g Empire
was partly inhalbited by Czechs
and partly by Germans. One of
the debated questions wi.thin thre
two nation.s wa.s whether the
country should be divlided into
two administrative regions, a
Czech and a German one, or wthether it should be ~ept as an administrativ,e u n i try. Althoog'h
opinions w-ere diivided in both the
Czech aind the German camps, it
can be said that, as a general
rule, the Czechs tri,ed to maintain
the feudailist concept of "orownJ:and Bohemia" as a consUtutional
entity, while the Gernnans found
that nat ional and politicail developments in bhe niineteenth century made obsolete the oo.d conoopts of State r.iights. They striived
for an administrative division of
Bohemia into Geriman and Czec!h
districts.
lt ma,y be safe1y said todary in
retr,ospeict that an administrative
diivision otf Bohemia into a German and a Ozech part mright
havre saved the country aind both
nations from m11.uneroos nationa[
r,i valries and fruitless struggles.
11he historry of Bohemi'a and with
it ,t he history otf Czecho-Slovakia might haive taken a different
course, if the old feudal1st concept od' historic Bohemian State
riglhts would have been replaced
in time by a reailistirc arnd liibera,l
ooncept of national equality amd
administrative separation.
People who give thought to
a reorg,a nization of EuirO'l)e on t,he
basis od' sellf-.deternnination ,md
justice wilil find the contr~butions
of th·e aforementioned a,u thors irn
"Das bohmische Sta-atsre<:ht" most
informative aind a rich soorce for
historic or interna,tional studies.
In add~tion, copious footnotes provide a fine bi'bliograiphiy on the
tOlpiC. -
A. W.
Kozarovcie im, Slovakia has a
farm cooperative that is not doJng so wel[. According to Stefan
Hano of Nitra (iPravda, Jian. 1:5,
1962), the young peopJ.e have run
otff to the faotory in TlmaCJie arnd
bhose over fifty spend more time
as musicians, playing at weddings,
birtbdays, anniiversarires, etc., than
as farm workers. Thek favorite
tum,e: "Neorem, nesejem, vsetko
samo sa mi rodi" (I plOIW not, I
sow not, everything g,r ,ows by itself for me)!
�Officers of the Slovak League of America
(Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio)
Honorary Presiden ts
I
4,
Michael S-as
Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A.
3803 Cresson Street
Philadelphia 27, Pa.
12608 Madison Avenue
Lakewood 7, hio
Joseph
Dr. Peter P. H letko
"'
George Kantor
President
Ph i lip A. Hrobak
i.
Klucar
1617 Alameda Avenu e
Lakewood 7, Ohio
Batavia R d., Box 48
Warrensville, Ill.
281 Hollywood Ave.
New York ol, N. Y.
P. 0 . Box 150
Midd letown, P a.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Vice-P resi dents
Joseph Bendik
John
P. 0. Box 230
Uniontown, Pa.
A.
Sabo l
National President
First Catholic Slovak Un ion
Ju l ia Krajcovic
Helen Kocan
1648 W . 18th S t r eet
Chicago 8, Ill.
National P resident
First Catholic Slovak
Ladies Union
Recording Secretary
John Horecky
Paul
2264 Walton Ave.
New York 53, N. Y.
Fallat
National President
Slovak Catholic Sokol
Secretary-T reas ur er
Paul C. Kazimer
Stephen J, Tkach
1122 Sylvan Avenue
Homestead, Pa.
National President
Pa. Catholic Slovak Union
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
An,na Sotak
National President
Ladies Pennsylvania
Slovak Catholic Union
Paul P. Jamriska
536 Mari e Ave.
Pitts burgh 2, Pa.
Emrich Valko
Andrew Hudak
National President
SloV'ak Catholic Cad e t Union
15701 Bennett Rd.
No. Royalton 33, Ohio
SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS
(Affiliated with the Slovak League of America)
JEDNOTA
SLOVENSKA OBRANA
ZENSKA JEDNOTA
Mid dletown , Pa.
Scran ton , P a.
Cleveland, Ohio
BRATSTVO
SLOVENSKE
NOVINY
ZORNlCKA
Cleveland, Oh io
Scranton, Pa.
KATOLiCKY SOKOL
SVORNOST
OSADNE HLASY
Passaic, N. J.
Whita ker. Pa .
Chicago, Ill.
Wilkes-Barr e, Pa.
SLOVAK V AMERIKE
Mi ddletown , P a.
�SLOVAKIA: The city of Kremnica, famous for its gold and silver mines,
minted money for cenh•ries. Castle and City Hall in the foreground.
�
SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
I
�76
SLOVAKIA
His book will, theirefore, nalburally stimllllate controversies.
By his own ad'mi!ssfon in the
Introduction to his wock, Prof.essor Oddo saw tlhat part o:f his
task lay in hrupintg to "exipos·e
and exiped myths which, for ooe
r•eason or other, have fownd their
way into the long and poi,gnarut
history of the Slovak people."
Basically, the author attempts to
expo.se the myths that (1) the
Czechs a•nd tlhe Slovaks are now
and always have been a cultural,
linguishc and nationau uniity; (2)
that Czedh◊'"Slova!lda was the "picture demdcracy" of the post-Versailles Europe; and (3,) that the
S1'ovak Repu[Jjlilc was not a natural d·e vclopment in the histocy
of the Slovak people.
The author gaithered many
availalb le s-ources and inv,e stigated
arguments pro and con to prove
his points and draw his conclusions, and they .ire mostly correct. His scy1e is clear and plain.
Studenlts di history, un.fiortunatel,y,
may be inconivenienced in the a["rangement of ref.erences, which
the allllthor mentions at the end
of tJhe book a<nd will mi1Ss footnotes.
Since the thesis of a distinct
national, cultural and linguistic
Slo\'ak enrtity has been generally
aooepted in recent years, the autho,r will! not encouIJ1ter much
objection on this point from the
students od' Central European history. HoweveT, as for t'he ''<pictmre democracy" olf pre,wair Czecho.:slo"'1kia, many readers, aocustome'd •to the sta·ndardized picture
presented for over fourr decades
in so milillY wofiks, may hesi'taite
to accept P,rof. Oddo's ,n,ewcypresented ve·r sion, ev,e n though
it has been corrolborated by the
views of C. A. Ma1Cartney, H. A.
Gilbbons, F . Lee Benns, and some
Slovak historians or by suich "Czechoslovak" politicians a,s the for-
mer Premier MiJ.a,n Rodi.a (in his.
Federation of Central Europe).
The most di'Dfiicult task for
American readers and students.
of modern hiistoriY will be, of
course, to· accept Prod'. Oddo's inte11pretation of the origin and politkal organization od' the Slowik
Repulblic which emerged in Central Eui-o,pe on Mairch 14, 1009,.
aifter Olecho-JS1'oviakia had been
abandCl'Iled art; Muni!ch by the Eu,ro,pean Great P-O<Wers, a,nd thus.
left rut the mercy of Hitler's Germany. The war pl'opag•a nda and
several symposia, inspired mostlry
by eimLgre poli'ticians and intellectuals, injected into the minds
.of millions who fought German
exipansion am adverse image oif
Sloviaki,a and her wartime existe,nice as a Repulblic. ]t cannot be
assumed ,t hat Rr.of. Oddo's book
will su:fifice to exipel aH the mtYths
aioorut the or~g,m, interna<tional
recogruition and war pooicy of the
Slovak Repulbli'c, which had allre,ady penetm<ted into the Ameirican hi:storiograiphy, before several
seri•ous and comprehensive wor-ks
were written on the ba,s is of scholariLy r,e search and 1nlteirnaitio,n,al
ddcwments. The diidlf<i:culty ror Canadian and Amerilcan readei-s in
aclcepting P<raf. Oddo's inter,pretation od' ·t he Slovalk Repu:blic will
perh'<!.lps be greatly reduced in
li:ght af present-day Aaneri<ean policy and heav.y responsihility tn
prevenrtJ1ng
newly
•i ndependent
small artd buffer countries fir,o m
either being eX1¢0Jted by orr seeking proteotion in a/Jiliance or aid
from adrvers.a,ries attemptin:g to
upset the bal:mce of power.
Slovakia
and
Its
People com-
prises twelve chayters and, in addition to outl<ines cxf historical
events, it deals also with the oultul"al and elconomilc liife of Slo~
v,aikia. One charpter deals with
SLovak emtg,r ation and its role in
Slovaik naltionail lilre. Severall mlllPS,
�SLOVAKIA
bi'bliogl'arpbiy and index add to
the value of the book which,
conitain·i.n,g the basic in,formation
about Sloviakia and the Slovaks in
a popular rather bhan scholarlry
style, is a new contr~bution to
English written literatul'e on Sfovailcia and has its va1ue for Oil"·
diina[1y re•a ders as well as for
scholars.
J. M. Kirschbaum,
Unw,er,silty of Montreall.
(A re!pcint from Sfavic and East
Eurropeam, Etudies, Vol. V'I, Part
I-TI, Montreal, 1'962).
)Jg
H.
)Jg
)Jg
G. Adler: Die Jude n in
Deutschland. From the Enlightenment to Nationa,l SoMucialism. Kosel-Verlag,
nich, 1960; 1718 pp., DM 6.80.
Nationial Socialism produced no,
thing rea:&liy new, particularly antiSemitism, alth-0ug,h it remained
for said regiime to exercise it
in tihe modern age in a•n arpocaty.ptic way. H. G. Adler is a Jew
.fu--0m Pra,gue, survivor of the
concentration camps oif 'l\h&esienstadt and Auschwitz, who has
arua:yq;ed the origins oi anti-Semitism, the Emancipation, and
the plight of the Jews in Germany.
The results af the author's e.ndea,v-0r are procu,r,a ble in a small
book proli,filc with quotes and
sources. Adler candidly acknowledges tha't durin1g the Middle
A,g.es a Jewish prdblem was possilble only in Gernnany because
the European naJtionrul States, ruf.
ter a period of severe oppression
"divested themselves of their
Jews" by means of expu]sio,n,,
England in 1200, France in li306,
(,a,n d after ,temrpora,r,y readmitta'Ilce, a.g ain in moo), Spain in
1492 and Portugal in 1497."
IHa'tred of tihe Jews was due
for centuries to their belonging
to a dilfifer-elllt religion,; the sol u-
77
tion laiY ther,e fore in conversion
to Christianity or by remedying
their "otherness." Heine spoke of
his rbaiptism as the "ticket of adm[ssion to EUI'O'Pean cul'twre."
Yet the position of the Jews in
German,y was as varied as the
ver,y diirversilfied nature of the
First Reich itsellf. As lalte as 18'17.
for example, the English prov:ince of Haillil<)lVer quite firmly
resisted the proposed emancipation oif the Jews which had been
souwht by Ohristians and Jews
alilke ever since the Enlightenment.
Amter the founding of the Second Reich re!Lgious dimference
was, to be su'l"e, no longer the
tr-ue cause of anti-semitism, fur
i.n, the Bismarclci-an constitution
one's religious alffiliation wa-s irrelevant. Adler ciites in addiltion
to the long-standing religious aspect of the Jewish question German anH-Semites like the BexHn cour't preacher StockeQ", the
Viennese Btirgermeister Lueger,
Richa,r d Wa-gner, Lagarde, and
FrLtsch. Accord!ing to these a pe,rsom.'s race and not reliigion was the
cause of anti.Jewish feclilnlg. One
noites a breach in devclopm~nts
that is not bridged by any explanation and one wonders wlh,y
this sooprising ohange. Was it due
to the rapid increase aifrer 187'1
of Jeiwi9h ba,nki,n,g and trading
firms, the en:tirance of Jewish
laiw,y ers, doctors and teaichers .into 1Pr-01fessions ,t hat had been
barred to them hrither.to? Was ilt
due to envy of their quick so-cial
climb? Even ducing the period
of rcli,gious anlti.Jiewish hatred the
C'll!rse 'IJ!is blood be on us and
on our chi'ldren" was not the sole
reason for tJhe pogiroms, bult a'lso
the desire to be rid of the annoyi111g oreditors. A similar trend
developed i.n many large German
cities in the "golden twenties."
German anti-Semitism, in the
�78
SLOVAKIA
final! anal'Ysis, has come to be a
stain not only on the name dI
Germany for years to coone but
has actually estram,g ed one of the
most M'dent German prataigonists
thrnughO'Ut the world, the German speaking J ews. Adler's book
sh01Ws •primariliy, too, th•e zeal with
which the Gerunan Jews all o·v er
the world were read1Y to serve
t!h•eir people, a fact whioh is seldom reim.embered toda'Y.
1
L. Rainalter.
31:
31:
31:
Robert Kee: Refugee World, Oxford University Press, London., 11961-; '1531 pag,es.
" ... to h-av•e been a refugee
over a lo'lllg period of years is to
hav-e built up an inner world cxf
feelirug and experience dI which
the outsider ca,n often have liittle
idea. " Dt is this inner woI"ld, as
~hl as tihe outer world, that Mr.
Kee brings to the r,e ader in a s·eries of peI"sonal visits to refugees in German'Y aind Al\lS'tlria, in
camps, in private huts, in aibandoned buses, wherever th•ey happen to be.
One irnimediateliy feels one is
chatting with Ulmcinia•ns, Slo:viaks,,
Ju,goslaivs, Boles, Riumanians, wi1fh
•ex,pe1lees, displaced persons, aind
with escapees. Possessed oif a
rare power of descrifption, aruthor
Eee makes every new contact
with his c·haracters a unique experience.
Unfortunat,e is Mr. Kee's relferenJc,e to an elder,ly couple he
visited in TI"aiskirchen, Austr\i•a,
as "Czech Volksdellltscbe." The designation "Czech Volksdeutsche"
is a misnomer, for the very word
"V:olkdsd·eultoohie" means ethnic
Germa,ns, and, in this case, Volilcsdeutsche from
Czecho-&lovakia
coulld only be ei'1lher S.udeten Germans or the German e11hnic peop1e from one of the v•airious "language islands" withirn Czecho-
Slovalcia, e .g., Spisska Nova Ves
or the (Spls) Mountain region.
SHgh'tl'Y painful is th-e second
incorr.e!ct r,eference ,to the s-aane
couple as "the old Czech cou~le
who had wailk•e d out dI Communist Czecho.,S}ov-akia because the
aruthorities had tried to suggest
that they should do heaV1Y work
to keep a'1iive." Painlful because
tlhe VoLksdeutsche, Sude'ten Germans, and a.11 other "expellees od'
German ethnic origin" were expressly denied any of the ands
a1lotted to other displ,aced pffsons (.DPs) under the IIRIO (lnternahonal Refugee Or.ganization)
character, for the sole reason
that they wer,e German. '11he clause
that stipulated thei,r exolus1on,
pla,ced them in the same bracket
with ''Nazis and criminals."
The outstanding featur.e of Mr.
Kee's book is its drive,home
power which acqualints the reader
not with viague and shad'O'W(Y
forms but wit,h flesh a,n d blood
men, women and children.
Graitifyi111g is the fair ev>a,luation of Germany's part in ha1n,dling the refugee prdlllem that the
CO'Untry w:as •coruiironted with in
its own p!"ostra·t e post,war condition when rougMy nine mil11lion
German eXJpellees from the Gocman East were shum,ted into the
country to be housed, alothed,
£ed and employed. Mr. Kee says:
"It is poinUess to say tha.t the
Germans had themselv,es inflicted :liar more terr.ilble sulflferirug on
even more people or, wlhat is also
true, thalt the vast majority ru
the GeI"mans on whom this suif£ering was now infilicted had tacitly approved dI such things being done to other people im, the
daiys when to be •a good German was to be a good Nlazi. Hoth
mass deportations were crimes
against humanity pei,pe'tr.i.'ted for
selfish politicall interes'ts."
A point one might take ex.cep-
�SLOVAKIA
tion to the statement tha,t "the
crime against the e~e11ed Germa,ns ... was one moo:-,e of indiilferenx:e rather tlham, caliculatiion, as the Nia:lli-s' crimes had
been." These inlfCJII'lmed, know too
well that Edlwar<l Bene!'; and his
accompilii:ces planned meticulously the ex,pulsion Olf three and a
hailif mil]ion, Sudeten Germarus
and sa-i<l aJt& ordering their expuJS'ion: ''!Leave th-em om,Ly a
han<lk.e:rchief to shed their tears
in."
The aulthor is an En,glishman
wri'tling for Englli!sh r-eaders l)rimairily. This fact need not disturib
other English-i1anguage readers
for anyone whose interest runs
froon simple humam, curiosity and
corrupassion to social service field
work an<l other refugee a,n d expellee exiperience in theory an<l
pira:ctice wi1ll :filnd Mr. Kee's book
arlive an<l iruformati:ve.
Alppendix "A" giv-es a nut-shell
aicqua,inltance with r,ediugee situ1aWlorl<l War El, lllnd Alppen,dix "B"
with a few of the or.gan~zations
workiing for refugees.
M. E.W.
li(!
li(!
li(!
William L. Shirer: The Rise and
Fall of the Third Reich: A
!History of Nazi Germany, Simon and Schuster, N. Y. ,
1960; 124'5 pp., $10.00.
In the guise of olbjective histocy this volume presents a harTowim,g, massiv,e but one-sided record of unrelieved Gernnan crimes
an'd blunders. WilU.am L. Shirer,
foreign correspon<lent and news
commentator, is also on the boa,r d
of diireotors of the "Society for
the PI"evention of Wo·rl<l War m,
Inc." of Wlhich Dorothy Thompson
wrote (May 31, 11950) that it "has
conduclted a systematic campaign
a1gaimst any constructive peace
with
Gernianiy ... land
vilifi.ed
every person iln pulblic life who
79
tried to warn that procedure
alon,g MorgenJthau lines wouild encomipa-ss the ruiTI olf Eur()ll)'e."
Shirer does n:ot allow that the
Versailles Treacy was unjust (p.
58). He states that "Nazism -a nd
the Third Reic-h, in fiact were but
a lo.g ica,l conltinuation otf German
history" (p. 90). His piling up otf
Nia7li crimes, faLling to put them
iin, perspective with the crimes otf
the opponents, never in fad!; a•lludin,g to the worst Soviet crimes,
such as their brutal population
transfers and their mass ra,ping otf
not only German but -a lso Hungarian and Austrian woonen, seem
calculated to· make any wruwacy
rea'd er hate more than ever the
Gemna-n people - now our allies
who tOilerated the monstrous
Nazis, and to think of the equally
monstrous Bolsheviks, now ou<r
cold war enemies, as reaHy not
so bad!
[n pa1ges on the Nazi abuse of
SOIV'iet and Poli&h prisoners of
wair he does not once al1ude to the
Soviet mass murder of Poli-sh
odificers at Kllltyn. He never mantions General Vlassov an<l his insurgent Russi·a ns who preferred
fighting for the Germans to Living under the Soviets.
IHe gives good information on
sev,era,l German attempts to remove Hit-Ioer, three even before
'11941, but he maikes no r-etfeir.e nce
to the Morgenthau plan, Communist-inspired, which was oalcu4ated to d!'i'Ve the Germans to
desperate resistance instead of
revo:llt. F<o,r the rest, d-e spite distorti-ons and some cuea,r fa~sehoods, there is much interesiting
inlformart,ion in the book. Hitler is
depicted as an uncanrny genius,
almoslt purirtan, fa,niatical<Ly warped
on loyalty and honoir, pathologica.U,y anti.iBolshevik and anti-JewiSl'h,
aibsolute.cy a.g ainst war with the
West, but certaionl,y plotting it
ag,a'inst Poland and Russia.
�SLOVAKIA
Readirug of Hitler's crimes •a nd
tilunders in d,etail, deducting firom
facts that truly morail statesmaill•
s'hiiip anywhere .from .l ,91\8 on
could have prevenlted the colossal
miseey of World War IiI and aft:er,
makes on,e feel aibout the human
raJCe as Sw.ilflt did.
'In sum: more .harmful than good
e,ocept for trained historians.
A. J. App.
~
)lg
)lg
Ernst Bil'ke and Kurit Oberdorifer: Das bohmische Staatsrecht in
chischen
gen des
hunderts,
den deu,t sch-tscheAuseinandersetzu n•
19. und 20. Jahrpulblished 1960 by
N. D. Elwert Verla.g, Mia,rburg-Lahn; 147 pp.
The book a.fifers four a51Pects
on the question otf historic Boh•emian State Ri<glhts. While Richaro
P1aschkia presents the Cz.ooh point
of view, Helmut Slalmicka deals
with the German side of the
question. EU/gen LemJberg writes
on the Ozeich corucepts of n,ation
and State ideology. Kurt Riabl
searehes into t:he legal aspects
and co.ruf.r onts the "histock State
rights" wilth the r1ghts otf seLfdetermination at the time when
Czecho-Sllovalk<ia was created.
One k•e y to understamding
Cz.ech--German rel-ations, accords
and discords, is to stud:y the concept od' Bo'h emian State rights.
Bohemia, a const1tutional erntity
within the dld Haibsbur,g Empire
was partly inhalbited by Czechs
and partly by Germans. One of
the debated questions wi.thin thre
two nation.s wa.s whether the
country should be divlided into
two administrative regions, a
Czech and a German one, or wthether it should be ~ept as an administrativ,e u n i try. Althoog'h
opinions w-ere diivided in both the
Czech aind the German camps, it
can be said that, as a general
rule, the Czechs tri,ed to maintain
the feudailist concept of "orownJ:and Bohemia" as a consUtutional
entity, while the Gernnans found
that nat ional and politicail developments in bhe niineteenth century made obsolete the oo.d conoopts of State r.iights. They striived
for an administrative division of
Bohemia into Geriman and Czec!h
districts.
lt ma,y be safe1y said todary in
retr,ospeict that an administrative
diivision otf Bohemia into a German and a Ozech part mright
havre saved the country aind both
nations from m11.uneroos nationa[
r,i valries and fruitless struggles.
11he historry of Bohemi'a and with
it ,t he history otf Czecho-Slovakia might haive taken a different
course, if the old feudal1st concept od' historic Bohemian State
riglhts would have been replaced
in time by a reailistirc arnd liibera,l
ooncept of national equality amd
administrative separation.
People who give thought to
a reorg,a nization of EuirO'l)e on t,he
basis od' sellf-.deternnination ,md
justice wilil find the contr~butions
of th·e aforementioned a,u thors irn
"Das bohmische Sta-atsre<:ht" most
informative aind a rich soorce for
historic or interna,tional studies.
In add~tion, copious footnotes provide a fine bi'bliograiphiy on the
tOlpiC. -
A. W.
Kozarovcie im, Slovakia has a
farm cooperative that is not doJng so wel[. According to Stefan
Hano of Nitra (iPravda, Jian. 1:5,
1962), the young peopJ.e have run
otff to the faotory in TlmaCJie arnd
bhose over fifty spend more time
as musicians, playing at weddings,
birtbdays, anniiversarires, etc., than
as farm workers. Thek favorite
tum,e: "Neorem, nesejem, vsetko
samo sa mi rodi" (I plOIW not, I
sow not, everything g,r ,ows by itself for me)!
�Officers of the Slovak League of America
(Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio)
Honorary Presiden ts
I
4,
Michael S-as
Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A.
3803 Cresson Street
Philadelphia 27, Pa.
12608 Madison Avenue
Lakewood 7, hio
Joseph
Dr. Peter P. H letko
"'
George Kantor
President
Ph i lip A. Hrobak
i.
Klucar
1617 Alameda Avenu e
Lakewood 7, Ohio
Batavia R d., Box 48
Warrensville, Ill.
281 Hollywood Ave.
New York ol, N. Y.
P. 0 . Box 150
Midd letown, P a.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Vice-P resi dents
Joseph Bendik
John
P. 0. Box 230
Uniontown, Pa.
A.
Sabo l
National President
First Catholic Slovak Un ion
Ju l ia Krajcovic
Helen Kocan
1648 W . 18th S t r eet
Chicago 8, Ill.
National P resident
First Catholic Slovak
Ladies Union
Recording Secretary
John Horecky
Paul
2264 Walton Ave.
New York 53, N. Y.
Fallat
National President
Slovak Catholic Sokol
Secretary-T reas ur er
Paul C. Kazimer
Stephen J, Tkach
1122 Sylvan Avenue
Homestead, Pa.
National President
Pa. Catholic Slovak Union
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
An,na Sotak
National President
Ladies Pennsylvania
Slovak Catholic Union
Paul P. Jamriska
536 Mari e Ave.
Pitts burgh 2, Pa.
Emrich Valko
Andrew Hudak
National President
SloV'ak Catholic Cad e t Union
15701 Bennett Rd.
No. Royalton 33, Ohio
SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS
(Affiliated with the Slovak League of America)
JEDNOTA
SLOVENSKA OBRANA
ZENSKA JEDNOTA
Mid dletown , Pa.
Scran ton , P a.
Cleveland, Ohio
BRATSTVO
SLOVENSKE
NOVINY
ZORNlCKA
Cleveland, Oh io
Scranton, Pa.
KATOLiCKY SOKOL
SVORNOST
OSADNE HLASY
Passaic, N. J.
Whita ker. Pa .
Chicago, Ill.
Wilkes-Barr e, Pa.
SLOVAK V AMERIKE
Mi ddletown , P a.
�SLOVAKIA: The city of Kremnica, famous for its gold and silver mines,
minted money for cenh•ries. Castle and City Hall in the foreground.
�
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1962, Vol. 12
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Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962.
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The Slovak League of America
Date
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1962
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SLOVAKIA
75
to arrange not only additional arms allotments but munition for the tanks and artillery guns and the exchange
of more officers and specialists. At the beginning of 1961,
at least 200 Cubans went to Czecho-Slovakia to get practical experience in larger industries there.
While the Czechs are doing everything they can to
aid material ends, they are also trying to ,p ut a peaceful
foot forward by sponsoring expositions in Havana. Plans
for these shows were prepared by the Brno architects
Denk and Pospisil. The Czechs want to show the Cubans just what socialism looks like. They will display
all kinds of Czech export goods including Prague hams,
Pilsner beer, all kinds of machinery and, of course, their
brand of plum brandy (Slivovice).
BOOK REVIEWS
Gilbert L. Oddo: Slovakia and Its ' the form of yet unpublished ma,People, New York, Speller ' nuSC'l'lipts.
and Sons, Inc., 1960, xi-361
IReviewirug the end results, one
pp., $6.00.
can, be grateful fur Prof. Oddo's
Prolfessor Oddo, a native-fuoirn limit_a~o.ns, whitc'h forced him to
Amerkan, undertook a dilflficult , a di.iif1~~lt process of research
and demanding task in copinlg . and w:iiiltmg, as they wo:iik t~ !he
with a phase of the history of a I a~va•nt~ge of t?~ reader, proVId~ng
country whose la!llguage he lh'as I him with a cri~ical_ Slovak version
the country s h1s'toriy from the
no't mastered and to whose na- /
tional arehives and otJher insti- n,mbh centu,r y to the present day.
tuti«ms he has never had access. ,• ~ddo's version, m~ed~y ?1>jectConseq,uenrtly, in an olbje'ctive a,p- 1ve and compreh~~s1ve rn its asproa'Oh, he had to rely on sources s~s;1111e~_t ai:id critique of Slo~,a(scarce as they are) pulbHshed in k1a s Justoncal mov~ents, ~ill,
English and French. In am,a,1,yzing I ~ c?urse, .con-trast w1'tlh previous
Professors
works in the Slovak la•n,guage, or 1nteripre'tahons lby
studying documents in the airch- T,homson, Busek-sipullber, K~rner,
ives o,f S,lova•k cultural assolcia- etc., w.ho were markedly mflutions in America, (there are over eniced hY C~ech sources.
bwo million Americans of Slovak 1 '.Ilhe history of Slovakia is a suiboru,gin, wiitJh a scor,e of associa- ject which, in languages other
tions, newspaiperis and period'ica1's), than Slovak, was until recen'tly
he was aided, arccordi,ng to his given the silent treaJtrrnent; and
severa'l the little that was reported was
by
aclcnO'Wlledgeimenlts,
Slov,ak intellectua,ls, professors done so i.nicompetently and withand linguists, teachiong at Canadian out adequate rese'areh, and - in
not
and American universities, and by I Professor Oddo's views their English language works in without unnecessary pa-ejudice.
'°~
I
76
SLOVAKIA
His book will, theirefore, nalburally stimllllate controversies.
By his own ad'mi!ssfon in the
Introduction to his wock, Prof.essor Oddo saw tlhat part o:f his
task lay in hrupintg to "exipos·e
and exiped myths which, for ooe
r•eason or other, have fownd their
way into the long and poi,gnarut
history of the Slovak people."
Basically, the author attempts to
expo.se the myths that (1) the
Czechs a•nd tlhe Slovaks are now
and always have been a cultural,
linguishc and nationau uniity; (2)
that Czedh◊'"Slova!lda was the "picture demdcracy" of the post-Versailles Europe; and (3,) that the
S1'ovak Repu[Jjlilc was not a natural d·e vclopment in the histocy
of the Slovak people.
The author gaithered many
availalb le s-ources and inv,e stigated
arguments pro and con to prove
his points and draw his conclusions, and they .ire mostly correct. His scy1e is clear and plain.
Studenlts di history, un.fiortunatel,y,
may be inconivenienced in the a["rangement of ref.erences, which
the allllthor mentions at the end
of tJhe book a<nd will mi1Ss footnotes.
Since the thesis of a distinct
national, cultural and linguistic
Slo\'ak enrtity has been generally
aooepted in recent years, the autho,r will! not encouIJ1ter much
objection on this point from the
students od' Central European history. HoweveT, as for t'he ''<pictmre democracy" olf pre,wair Czecho.:slo"'1kia, many readers, aocustome'd •to the sta·ndardized picture
presented for over fourr decades
in so milillY wofiks, may hesi'taite
to accept P,rof. Oddo's ,n,ewcypresented ve·r sion, ev,e n though
it has been corrolborated by the
views of C. A. Ma1Cartney, H. A.
Gilbbons, F . Lee Benns, and some
Slovak historians or by suich "Czechoslovak" politicians a,s the for-
mer Premier MiJ.a,n Rodi.a (in his.
Federation of Central Europe).
The most di'Dfiicult task for
American readers and students.
of modern hiistoriY will be, of
course, to· accept Prod'. Oddo's inte11pretation of the origin and politkal organization od' the Slowik
Repulblic which emerged in Central Eui-o,pe on Mairch 14, 1009,.
aifter Olecho-JS1'oviakia had been
abandCl'Iled art; Muni!ch by the Eu,ro,pean Great P-O<Wers, a,nd thus.
left rut the mercy of Hitler's Germany. The war pl'opag•a nda and
several symposia, inspired mostlry
by eimLgre poli'ticians and intellectuals, injected into the minds
.of millions who fought German
exipansion am adverse image oif
Sloviaki,a and her wartime existe,nice as a Repulblic. ]t cannot be
assumed ,t hat Rr.of. Oddo's book
will su:fifice to exipel aH the mtYths
aioorut the or~g,m, interna<tional
recogruition and war pooicy of the
Slovak Repulbli'c, which had allre,ady penetm<ted into the Ameirican hi:storiograiphy, before several
seri•ous and comprehensive wor-ks
were written on the ba,s is of scholariLy r,e search and 1nlteirnaitio,n,al
ddcwments. The diidlf<i:culty ror Canadian and Amerilcan readei-s in
aclcepting P<raf. Oddo's inter,pretation od' ·t he Slovalk Repu:blic will
perh'<!.lps be greatly reduced in
li:ght af present-day Aaneri<ean policy and heav.y responsihility tn
prevenrtJ1ng
newly
•i ndependent
small artd buffer countries fir,o m
either being eX1¢0Jted by orr seeking proteotion in a/Jiliance or aid
from adrvers.a,ries attemptin:g to
upset the bal:mce of power.
Slovakia
and
Its
People com-
prises twelve chayters and, in addition to outl<ines cxf historical
events, it deals also with the oultul"al and elconomilc liife of Slo~
v,aikia. One charpter deals with
SLovak emtg,r ation and its role in
Slovaik naltionail lilre. Severall mlllPS,
SLOVAKIA
bi'bliogl'arpbiy and index add to
the value of the book which,
conitain·i.n,g the basic in,formation
about Sloviakia and the Slovaks in
a popular rather bhan scholarlry
style, is a new contr~bution to
English written literatul'e on Sfovailcia and has its va1ue for Oil"·
diina[1y re•a ders as well as for
scholars.
J. M. Kirschbaum,
Unw,er,silty of Montreall.
(A re!pcint from Sfavic and East
Eurropeam, Etudies, Vol. V'I, Part
I-TI, Montreal, 1'962).
)Jg
H.
)Jg
)Jg
G. Adler: Die Jude n in
Deutschland. From the Enlightenment to Nationa,l SoMucialism. Kosel-Verlag,
nich, 1960; 1718 pp., DM 6.80.
Nationial Socialism produced no,
thing rea:&liy new, particularly antiSemitism, alth-0ug,h it remained
for said regiime to exercise it
in tihe modern age in a•n arpocaty.ptic way. H. G. Adler is a Jew
.fu--0m Pra,gue, survivor of the
concentration camps oif 'l\h&esienstadt and Auschwitz, who has
arua:yq;ed the origins oi anti-Semitism, the Emancipation, and
the plight of the Jews in Germany.
The results af the author's e.ndea,v-0r are procu,r,a ble in a small
book proli,filc with quotes and
sources. Adler candidly acknowledges tha't durin1g the Middle
A,g.es a Jewish prdblem was possilble only in Gernnany because
the European naJtionrul States, ruf.
ter a period of severe oppression
"divested themselves of their
Jews" by means of expu]sio,n,,
England in 1200, France in li306,
(,a,n d after ,temrpora,r,y readmitta'Ilce, a.g ain in moo), Spain in
1492 and Portugal in 1497."
IHa'tred of tihe Jews was due
for centuries to their belonging
to a dilfifer-elllt religion,; the sol u-
77
tion laiY ther,e fore in conversion
to Christianity or by remedying
their "otherness." Heine spoke of
his rbaiptism as the "ticket of adm[ssion to EUI'O'Pean cul'twre."
Yet the position of the Jews in
German,y was as varied as the
ver,y diirversilfied nature of the
First Reich itsellf. As lalte as 18'17.
for example, the English prov:ince of Haillil<)lVer quite firmly
resisted the proposed emancipation oif the Jews which had been
souwht by Ohristians and Jews
alilke ever since the Enlightenment.
Amter the founding of the Second Reich re!Lgious dimference
was, to be su'l"e, no longer the
tr-ue cause of anti-semitism, fur
i.n, the Bismarclci-an constitution
one's religious alffiliation wa-s irrelevant. Adler ciites in addiltion
to the long-standing religious aspect of the Jewish question German anH-Semites like the BexHn cour't preacher StockeQ", the
Viennese Btirgermeister Lueger,
Richa,r d Wa-gner, Lagarde, and
FrLtsch. Accord!ing to these a pe,rsom.'s race and not reliigion was the
cause of anti.Jewish feclilnlg. One
noites a breach in devclopm~nts
that is not bridged by any explanation and one wonders wlh,y
this sooprising ohange. Was it due
to the rapid increase aifrer 187'1
of Jeiwi9h ba,nki,n,g and trading
firms, the en:tirance of Jewish
laiw,y ers, doctors and teaichers .into 1Pr-01fessions ,t hat had been
barred to them hrither.to? Was ilt
due to envy of their quick so-cial
climb? Even ducing the period
of rcli,gious anlti.Jiewish hatred the
C'll!rse 'IJ!is blood be on us and
on our chi'ldren" was not the sole
reason for tJhe pogiroms, bult a'lso
the desire to be rid of the annoyi111g oreditors. A similar trend
developed i.n many large German
cities in the "golden twenties."
German anti-Semitism, in the
78
SLOVAKIA
final! anal'Ysis, has come to be a
stain not only on the name dI
Germany for years to coone but
has actually estram,g ed one of the
most M'dent German prataigonists
thrnughO'Ut the world, the German speaking J ews. Adler's book
sh01Ws •primariliy, too, th•e zeal with
which the Gerunan Jews all o·v er
the world were read1Y to serve
t!h•eir people, a fact whioh is seldom reim.embered toda'Y.
1
L. Rainalter.
31:
31:
31:
Robert Kee: Refugee World, Oxford University Press, London., 11961-; '1531 pag,es.
" ... to h-av•e been a refugee
over a lo'lllg period of years is to
hav-e built up an inner world cxf
feelirug and experience dI which
the outsider ca,n often have liittle
idea. " Dt is this inner woI"ld, as
~hl as tihe outer world, that Mr.
Kee brings to the r,e ader in a s·eries of peI"sonal visits to refugees in German'Y aind Al\lS'tlria, in
camps, in private huts, in aibandoned buses, wherever th•ey happen to be.
One irnimediateliy feels one is
chatting with Ulmcinia•ns, Slo:viaks,,
Ju,goslaivs, Boles, Riumanians, wi1fh
•ex,pe1lees, displaced persons, aind
with escapees. Possessed oif a
rare power of descrifption, aruthor
Eee makes every new contact
with his c·haracters a unique experience.
Unfortunat,e is Mr. Kee's relferenJc,e to an elder,ly couple he
visited in TI"aiskirchen, Austr\i•a,
as "Czech Volksdellltscbe." The designation "Czech Volksdeutsche"
is a misnomer, for the very word
"V:olkdsd·eultoohie" means ethnic
Germa,ns, and, in this case, Volilcsdeutsche from
Czecho-&lovakia
coulld only be ei'1lher S.udeten Germans or the German e11hnic peop1e from one of the v•airious "language islands" withirn Czecho-
Slovalcia, e .g., Spisska Nova Ves
or the (Spls) Mountain region.
SHgh'tl'Y painful is th-e second
incorr.e!ct r,eference ,to the s-aane
couple as "the old Czech cou~le
who had wailk•e d out dI Communist Czecho.,S}ov-akia because the
aruthorities had tried to suggest
that they should do heaV1Y work
to keep a'1iive." Painlful because
tlhe VoLksdeutsche, Sude'ten Germans, and a.11 other "expellees od'
German ethnic origin" were expressly denied any of the ands
a1lotted to other displ,aced pffsons (.DPs) under the IIRIO (lnternahonal Refugee Or.ganization)
character, for the sole reason
that they wer,e German. '11he clause
that stipulated thei,r exolus1on,
pla,ced them in the same bracket
with ''Nazis and criminals."
The outstanding featur.e of Mr.
Kee's book is its drive,home
power which acqualints the reader
not with viague and shad'O'W(Y
forms but wit,h flesh a,n d blood
men, women and children.
Graitifyi111g is the fair ev>a,luation of Germany's part in ha1n,dling the refugee prdlllem that the
CO'Untry w:as •coruiironted with in
its own p!"ostra·t e post,war condition when rougMy nine mil11lion
German eXJpellees from the Gocman East were shum,ted into the
country to be housed, alothed,
£ed and employed. Mr. Kee says:
"It is poinUess to say tha.t the
Germans had themselv,es inflicted :liar more terr.ilble sulflferirug on
even more people or, wlhat is also
true, thalt the vast majority ru
the GeI"mans on whom this suif£ering was now infilicted had tacitly approved dI such things being done to other people im, the
daiys when to be •a good German was to be a good Nlazi. Hoth
mass deportations were crimes
against humanity pei,pe'tr.i.'ted for
selfish politicall interes'ts."
A point one might take ex.cep-
SLOVAKIA
tion to the statement tha,t "the
crime against the e~e11ed Germa,ns ... was one moo:-,e of indiilferenx:e rather tlham, caliculatiion, as the Nia:lli-s' crimes had
been." These inlfCJII'lmed, know too
well that Edlwar<l Bene!'; and his
accompilii:ces planned meticulously the ex,pulsion Olf three and a
hailif mil]ion, Sudeten Germarus
and sa-i<l aJt& ordering their expuJS'ion: ''!Leave th-em om,Ly a
han<lk.e:rchief to shed their tears
in."
The aulthor is an En,glishman
wri'tling for Englli!sh r-eaders l)rimairily. This fact need not disturib
other English-i1anguage readers
for anyone whose interest runs
froon simple humam, curiosity and
corrupassion to social service field
work an<l other refugee a,n d expellee exiperience in theory an<l
pira:ctice wi1ll :filnd Mr. Kee's book
arlive an<l iruformati:ve.
Alppendix "A" giv-es a nut-shell
aicqua,inltance with r,ediugee situ1aWlorl<l War El, lllnd Alppen,dix "B"
with a few of the or.gan~zations
workiing for refugees.
M. E.W.
li(!
li(!
li(!
William L. Shirer: The Rise and
Fall of the Third Reich: A
!History of Nazi Germany, Simon and Schuster, N. Y. ,
1960; 124'5 pp., $10.00.
In the guise of olbjective histocy this volume presents a harTowim,g, massiv,e but one-sided record of unrelieved Gernnan crimes
an'd blunders. WilU.am L. Shirer,
foreign correspon<lent and news
commentator, is also on the boa,r d
of diireotors of the "Society for
the PI"evention of Wo·rl<l War m,
Inc." of Wlhich Dorothy Thompson
wrote (May 31, 11950) that it "has
conduclted a systematic campaign
a1gaimst any constructive peace
with
Gernianiy ... land
vilifi.ed
every person iln pulblic life who
79
tried to warn that procedure
alon,g MorgenJthau lines wouild encomipa-ss the ruiTI olf Eur()ll)'e."
Shirer does n:ot allow that the
Versailles Treacy was unjust (p.
58). He states that "Nazism -a nd
the Third Reic-h, in fiact were but
a lo.g ica,l conltinuation otf German
history" (p. 90). His piling up otf
Nia7li crimes, faLling to put them
iin, perspective with the crimes otf
the opponents, never in fad!; a•lludin,g to the worst Soviet crimes,
such as their brutal population
transfers and their mass ra,ping otf
not only German but -a lso Hungarian and Austrian woonen, seem
calculated to· make any wruwacy
rea'd er hate more than ever the
Gemna-n people - now our allies
who tOilerated the monstrous
Nazis, and to think of the equally
monstrous Bolsheviks, now ou<r
cold war enemies, as reaHy not
so bad!
[n pa1ges on the Nazi abuse of
SOIV'iet and Poli&h prisoners of
wair he does not once al1ude to the
Soviet mass murder of Poli-sh
odificers at Kllltyn. He never mantions General Vlassov an<l his insurgent Russi·a ns who preferred
fighting for the Germans to Living under the Soviets.
IHe gives good information on
sev,era,l German attempts to remove Hit-Ioer, three even before
'11941, but he maikes no r-etfeir.e nce
to the Morgenthau plan, Communist-inspired, which was oalcu4ated to d!'i'Ve the Germans to
desperate resistance instead of
revo:llt. F<o,r the rest, d-e spite distorti-ons and some cuea,r fa~sehoods, there is much interesiting
inlformart,ion in the book. Hitler is
depicted as an uncanrny genius,
almoslt purirtan, fa,niatical<Ly warped
on loyalty and honoir, pathologica.U,y anti.iBolshevik and anti-JewiSl'h,
aibsolute.cy a.g ainst war with the
West, but certaionl,y plotting it
ag,a'inst Poland and Russia.
SLOVAKIA
Readirug of Hitler's crimes •a nd
tilunders in d,etail, deducting firom
facts that truly morail statesmaill•
s'hiiip anywhere .from .l ,91\8 on
could have prevenlted the colossal
miseey of World War IiI and aft:er,
makes on,e feel aibout the human
raJCe as Sw.ilflt did.
'In sum: more .harmful than good
e,ocept for trained historians.
A. J. App.
~
)lg
)lg
Ernst Bil'ke and Kurit Oberdorifer: Das bohmische Staatsrecht in
chischen
gen des
hunderts,
den deu,t sch-tscheAuseinandersetzu n•
19. und 20. Jahrpulblished 1960 by
N. D. Elwert Verla.g, Mia,rburg-Lahn; 147 pp.
The book a.fifers four a51Pects
on the question otf historic Boh•emian State Ri<glhts. While Richaro
P1aschkia presents the Cz.ooh point
of view, Helmut Slalmicka deals
with the German side of the
question. EU/gen LemJberg writes
on the Ozeich corucepts of n,ation
and State ideology. Kurt Riabl
searehes into t:he legal aspects
and co.ruf.r onts the "histock State
rights" wilth the r1ghts otf seLfdetermination at the time when
Czecho-Sllovalk<ia was created.
One k•e y to understamding
Cz.ech--German rel-ations, accords
and discords, is to stud:y the concept od' Bo'h emian State rights.
Bohemia, a const1tutional erntity
within the dld Haibsbur,g Empire
was partly inhalbited by Czechs
and partly by Germans. One of
the debated questions wi.thin thre
two nation.s wa.s whether the
country should be divlided into
two administrative regions, a
Czech and a German one, or wthether it should be ~ept as an administrativ,e u n i try. Althoog'h
opinions w-ere diivided in both the
Czech aind the German camps, it
can be said that, as a general
rule, the Czechs tri,ed to maintain
the feudailist concept of "orownJ:and Bohemia" as a consUtutional
entity, while the Gernnans found
that nat ional and politicail developments in bhe niineteenth century made obsolete the oo.d conoopts of State r.iights. They striived
for an administrative division of
Bohemia into Geriman and Czec!h
districts.
lt ma,y be safe1y said todary in
retr,ospeict that an administrative
diivision otf Bohemia into a German and a Ozech part mright
havre saved the country aind both
nations from m11.uneroos nationa[
r,i valries and fruitless struggles.
11he historry of Bohemi'a and with
it ,t he history otf Czecho-Slovakia might haive taken a different
course, if the old feudal1st concept od' historic Bohemian State
riglhts would have been replaced
in time by a reailistirc arnd liibera,l
ooncept of national equality amd
administrative separation.
People who give thought to
a reorg,a nization of EuirO'l)e on t,he
basis od' sellf-.deternnination ,md
justice wilil find the contr~butions
of th·e aforementioned a,u thors irn
"Das bohmische Sta-atsre<:ht" most
informative aind a rich soorce for
historic or interna,tional studies.
In add~tion, copious footnotes provide a fine bi'bliograiphiy on the
tOlpiC. -
A. W.
Kozarovcie im, Slovakia has a
farm cooperative that is not doJng so wel[. According to Stefan
Hano of Nitra (iPravda, Jian. 1:5,
1962), the young peopJ.e have run
otff to the faotory in TlmaCJie arnd
bhose over fifty spend more time
as musicians, playing at weddings,
birtbdays, anniiversarires, etc., than
as farm workers. Thek favorite
tum,e: "Neorem, nesejem, vsetko
samo sa mi rodi" (I plOIW not, I
sow not, everything g,r ,ows by itself for me)!
Officers of the Slovak League of America
(Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio)
Honorary Presiden ts
I
4,
Michael S-as
Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A.
3803 Cresson Street
Philadelphia 27, Pa.
12608 Madison Avenue
Lakewood 7, hio
Joseph
Dr. Peter P. H letko
"'
George Kantor
President
Ph i lip A. Hrobak
i.
Klucar
1617 Alameda Avenu e
Lakewood 7, Ohio
Batavia R d., Box 48
Warrensville, Ill.
281 Hollywood Ave.
New York ol, N. Y.
P. 0 . Box 150
Midd letown, P a.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Vice-P resi dents
Joseph Bendik
John
P. 0. Box 230
Uniontown, Pa.
A.
Sabo l
National President
First Catholic Slovak Un ion
Ju l ia Krajcovic
Helen Kocan
1648 W . 18th S t r eet
Chicago 8, Ill.
National P resident
First Catholic Slovak
Ladies Union
Recording Secretary
John Horecky
Paul
2264 Walton Ave.
New York 53, N. Y.
Fallat
National President
Slovak Catholic Sokol
Secretary-T reas ur er
Paul C. Kazimer
Stephen J, Tkach
1122 Sylvan Avenue
Homestead, Pa.
National President
Pa. Catholic Slovak Union
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
An,na Sotak
National President
Ladies Pennsylvania
Slovak Catholic Union
Paul P. Jamriska
536 Mari e Ave.
Pitts burgh 2, Pa.
Emrich Valko
Andrew Hudak
National President
SloV'ak Catholic Cad e t Union
15701 Bennett Rd.
No. Royalton 33, Ohio
SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS
(Affiliated with the Slovak League of America)
JEDNOTA
SLOVENSKA OBRANA
ZENSKA JEDNOTA
Mid dletown , Pa.
Scran ton , P a.
Cleveland, Ohio
BRATSTVO
SLOVENSKE
NOVINY
ZORNlCKA
Cleveland, Oh io
Scranton, Pa.
KATOLiCKY SOKOL
SVORNOST
OSADNE HLASY
Passaic, N. J.
Whita ker. Pa .
Chicago, Ill.
Wilkes-Barr e, Pa.
SLOVAK V AMERIKE
Mi ddletown , P a.
SLOVAKIA: The city of Kremnica, famous for its gold and silver mines,
minted money for cenh•ries. Castle and City Hall in the foreground.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35)
Description
An account of the resource
includes book reviews, 75-80, and photo of Kremnica Castle and City Hall
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March-June 1962