1 50 9 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8c4fff75d3899397a9df9a5d6d19c356.pdf 5fecb7d60105e1928d9ff6db123aeaea PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and �152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. �SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or �154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The �SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova �156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. �SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work �158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, �SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech �160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid �SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between �162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core �SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into �164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day . � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and �152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. �SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or �154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The �SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova �156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. �SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work �158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, �SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech �160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid �SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between �162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core �SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into �164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day . � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and 152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or 154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova 156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work 158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech 160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between 162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into 164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day .  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 Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Diana Duchoňová, Palatín Mikuláš Eterházy (Peter Máriássy), p. 151</li> <li>Zora Mintalová Zubercová, Ako sme kedysi žili: Obrazky každodenného života našich predkov (Lenka Stolarik), p. 153</li> <li>Daniela Kodajová et. al., Živena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenských žien (Edita Bosák), p. 154</li> <li>Jan Raška, Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 157</li> <li>Miroslav Londák et. al., Dubček (Marty Manor Mullins), p. 159</li> <li>Miroslav Mojžita, Kňažko, Demeš, Kňažkor: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch 1990 až 1993 (Juraj Hocman), p. 162</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bosák, Edita, 1950-2022 Hocman, Juraj Máriássy, Peter Mullins, Marty Manor, 1976- Stolarik, Lenka Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/24c0ac872e7ac6795b014bdd4fddb951.pdf cdf811185b2d67c56e5303bd487cfc0e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 27 ENVISIONING A HOMELAND: CARPATHO-RUSYN IMMIGRANTS IN THE USA AND THE CZECHOSLOVAK OPTION 1 Richard D. Custer In the earliest decades of their life in the United States, relations between Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants were frequent and generally productive. But Czech immigrants neither settled in the same places most Rusyn immigrants went, nor had any notable higherlevel contacts with them. Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant newspapers, which were an important means for their readers to become aware of immigrant issues outside their own ethnic group, rarely made mention of Czechs until 19 16. Yet by late 1918, American Rusyn leaders were laying a foundation for their homeland countrymen entering into a new state with the Czechs and Slovaks. In the space of just a few months of the concept of the first Czechoslovak Republic being known to American Rusyns, a plebiscite conducted in some segments of the community resulted in a strong, though not overwhelming, preference for inclusion into the nascent Czechoslovak state. The results would prove decisive in the fate of post-Austro-Hungarian Subcarpathian Rus'. This article will examine why Czechoslovakia became and did, or did not, remain their preferred option. Early Settlement of Carpatho-Rusyns, Slovaks, and Czechs in the U.S.A. [n the formative years of the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant communities, these two Slavic peoples, in many cases already having occasional contact in their shared homeland, experienced times of cooperation and conflict that helped to firmly define their respective identities. Historic "U pper Hungary," specificall y the counties of Abauj /Abov, Szepes/Spis, Saras/Saris, Zemplen/Zemplin, and Ung/ Uz, 1 O ri gi nally presented at "Czec hoslovakia at I 00: Envisioning and Imagi ng Subcarpathian Rus"' panel , Association fo r Slavic, East European, and Euras ian Studies (ASEEES) annua l convention, Boston , MA, 6 December 2018. �28 SLOVAKIA 2021 experienced the highest rate of poverty and thus the highest rate of emigration to the United States starting in the late 19th century. In these counties - for the most part present-day eastern Slovakia - Slovaks were the majority, and Rusyns were a substantial minority. Some villages were ethnically mixed, or neighboring vil lages inhabited mostly by the other ethnic group. The first Slovak immigrants to the United States from Upper Hungary began to arrive in the late 1860s, and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants from Upper Hungary and Austrian Galicia began to arrive in the latter 1870s, but significant numbers of both were not found in the U.S.A. until the 1880s. The communities of both groups began to organize in the early 1880s. In general , Slovaks (particularly those from eastern Slovakia) and Carpatho-Rusyns settled in the same towns and cities in the U.S.A.: metropolitan New York City; Bridgeport, Connecticut; the anthracite coa l mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania; Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania; western Pennsy lvania; C leveland ; Chicago and northwestern Indiana; St. Louis; Minneapolis; and Detroit. 2 These areas were home to the vast majority of both Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn parishes and other organizations. The places where Slovaks were established that had no Carpatho-Rusyn presence were few, primarily in upstate New York and the Midwest. Specifically Slovak Roman Catholic parishes were founded in Haz leton , Pennsylvania. and Streator, Illinois ( 1885), and a Lutheran parish was founded also in Streator ( 1884), whi le the first CarpathoRusyn Greek Catholic parish was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1884. Their respective mutual-aid "buria l societies," or fraternal insurance lodges, were also founded at around the same time, the first such Slovak society being founded in New York City in 1883 3 , while the first such Ru syn soc iety was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1885 4 . 2 Konstantin Cul en, History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul, Minn .: Czechoslovak Genea logical Society International, 2007), 67-70; Paul R. Magocsi, Our People: Carpatho-Rusvns and Their Descendant.,· in North America. Fourth rev. ed. (Wauconda, Ill .: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2005), 20-22. 3 M. Mark Sto larik, "A Place fo r Everyone: Slovak Fraternal-Benefit Societies" in Scott Cummings ed., Se(f-Help in America: Patterns of Minoritv Business Ente1prise (Port Washington. NY: Kennikat Press, 1980), 130- 141. 4 Magocsi, 49. �SLOVAKIA 2021 29 In the homeland, Carpatho- Ru syns probably would have never met an ethnic Czech/ Bohemian or Moravian, except perhaps as young conscripts serving together in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War 1. 5 (And it is further unlikely that these men wou ld have found their way to the United States until after the end of the war.) Contact between Carpatho-Ru syn and Czech immigrants in the U.S.A. was similarly unlikely, and the two immigrant groups were of substantiall y different character. Czech immigrants began to arrive in the United States much earl ier: the largest number came in the late 1860s. A substantial portion of these immigrants were at least middle class and artisans, in strong contrast to the mostly peasant Slovak and CarpathoRusyn immigrants who took on unskilled jobs in the mines and mills. Finally, Czech settlements were generally in the Midwest and Texas, where farm land was easi ly obtai ned, far from the industrial setting that defined the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant experience.6 Only in cities like Ch icago, C leveland, and Pittsburgh were eastern S lovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns likely to encounter Czech immigrants, if at all. Additionally, Czech immigrants were increasingly less likely to worship in (Roman) Catholic churc hes and thus their contact with Slovak or (i n certain situations) Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants was not frequent. The early Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, then, in addition to frequent and essential contact with their Lemko Rusyn , Boiko, and Ukrainian co-religionists from Galicia in Greek Catholic parishes and fraternal organizations, were far more familiar with Slovak immigra nts as their neighbors, work friends , and perhaps spouses or extended family. To some extent, Carpatho-Rusyns' and Slovaks' fraternal benefit organizations developed along the same lines and in cooperation. Fraternal organizations were usually the first community institution estab lished in the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant settlements. These were built on the model of simi lar organizations in the homeland, in part as a replacement for the American insurance that was not usually ava il ab le to S lavic immigrants, and out of a need for 5 Magocsi, " The Ruthenian Decision to Unite with Czechoslovaki a," Sla vic Review, Vol. 34, o. 2 (June 1975), 364. 6 Thoma s Capek, The Cechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic and Religious life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 36-51 , 60-68. �30 SLOVAKIA 2021 an organization to rally the immigrants on an ethnic basis. The first of these societies arose in pioneer Slovak and Rusyn settlements in the 1880s and 1890s. Some were founded by Roman and Greek Catholics together, e.g., in Bridgeport, Connecticut ( 1888), Kingston, Pennsylvania ( 1887 or 1888), Streator, Illinois ( 1889), McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, Allegheny/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Passaic, New Jersey ( 1890). Some or most of these organizations would likely have joined the national Slovak organizations founded around that time: the National Slavonic Society of the United States (renamed National Slovak Society of the United States of America in 1913), or the First Catholic Slovak Union, FCSU/"Jednota," both founded in 1890.7 Rusyns would not have their own comparable organization until 1892. But the most striking example of a shared Slovak/Rusyn fraternal society was the Pennsylvania Slovak Roman & Greek Catholic Union (aka Pennsylvania Slovak Union or PSJ). Of all the Slovak-American fraternal societies this organization would count the largest number of Rusyn members, and more than 20 PSJ lodges were identified specifically as Greek Catholic or were based at a Greek Catholic church. 8 Despite having a generally common cultural background, and some shared religious affiliation and shared organizations, on an official level , the political goals of the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants did not always coincide, even as the idea of a Czechoslovak republic began to materiali ze. American Carpatho-Rusyn Fraternal Benefit Societies Greek Catholic Union (GCU). The GCU was the sec ul ar organization with the largest membership and widest geographical reach in the American Rusyn community. Its leadership, and editorial stance of its Amerikansky Russky Viestnik newspaper (ARV) , were generally anti-Hungarian, vehemently anti-Ukrainian, and mildly Russophil e, though never politically inclined to union with Russia. While its 1902 spinoff United Societies, loyal to America's first Greek Catholic 7 Stolarik, 130- 141. Ri chard D. Custer, "Old Countrymen, New Neighbors: Early Carpatho- Rusyn and Slovak Immigra nt Relations in the United States" in S/ovo (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rap ids, IA), Summer 2016. Unabridged version on line at https://www .ncsml .org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07 /Old-Countrymen-New-Neighbors.pdf, 6-7. 8 �SLOVAKIA 2021 31 Bishop Soter Ortynsky (an ethnic Ukrainian) since his arrival in 1907 and friendly to the Ga lician clergy, was the GCU 's antagonist on paper, they wou ld prove to be the al li es that would make possible a stronger voice that proved to be the one that caught the ear of the creators of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Slovaks - those who were Greek Catholics as we ll as Roman Catholics - made up a not insignificant portion of the GCU ' s membership, but early on the GCU took a strong stand against the idea that there were actually ethnic S lovak Greek Catholics.9 United Societies of the Greek Catholic Religion. The United Societies spun off from the GCU in 1902 and maintained a loya li st position toward the Greek Catholic Church, at times in opposition to what was perceived as the rebel li ous or disloyal GCU. In its support for Bishop Ortynsky, the society, its newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian ( 1910- 19 17), and its editor, Father Joseph Hanulya, were castigated by the GCU as Ukrainian sympathi zers. Around 1918, the United Societies had about 9,000 members including youth 10 , and published a newspaper, Prosvita, that remained often at odds w ith the GCU and its ARV. Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz (RNS) / Ukrainian National Association (UNA). The GCU in its early years, under c lerically-dominated leadership, became preoccupied with Rusyn affairs in Hungary and enunciated a generally pro-Hungarian political stance. This ali enated the significant membership from Galicia (most of whom were Lemkos), and many lodges, some even with substantial Subcarpathian membership, seceded from the GCU in 1894 to form a new organization . That organization, founded in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, was the Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz, or in English, Russian National Union . It we lcomed as members Rusyns from Hungary and Galicia who had a strong sense of national identity, whether "Rusyn," " Russian," or "Ruthenian ." As the organization and its Svoboda newspaper became more Ukrainian-oriented, and the terms Ukraine and Ukrainian increasing ly used alongside Rus' and Rusyn, those with Russophil e or Old-Ruthenian views wou ld transfer to other organizations, primarily 9 Custer, '" No Such Thing as Greek Catholic Slovaks: ' The GCU's Polemic," The Carpatho-Rusyns of Pennsylvania, http://rusynsofpa. blogspot.com/2 014/12/no-suchthing-as-greek-catholic-slovaks.html. Accessed December I, 201 8. 10 Magocsi, " Political Activity," 398. �32 SLOVAKIA 2021 the Russian Brotherhood Organization. The dominant "Ruthenian" segment would eventually lead the organization to change its name in September 1914 to the Ukrainian National Association. Alienated by this change, approximately 17 UNA lodges, 15 of which had a primarily Subcarpathian Rusyn membership, joined the United Societies between October 1914 and February 1915, resulting in 2 1 new regular United Societies lodges and 6 new United Societies youth lodges. Onl y a few such lodges would remain in the UNA, and so the organization's influence among American Subcarpathian Rusyns had almost entirely di ssipated. Russian Brotherhood Organization (RBO). Some members of GCU and RNS in 1900 gathered in Mahanoy City, Pa ., to form a new fraternal organization that would resist clerical domination, have no requirement of church membership, and avoid both pro-Hungarian and pro-Ukrainian political stands. Most of its early lodges were located in northeastern Pennsylvania and some had left the GCU or RNS to join. Religiously, the society remained officially neutral , but as a Ukrainian orientation came to dominate Ga lician Greek Catholic circles in the U.S.A. and in the homeland, the organization became much more supportive of the Orthodox Church, and an increasing portion of its membership reflected that. The RBO 's consistent stand on Ukrainianism was very negative, but simi larly, it opposed the idea that the Rusyn people's regional distinctions justified separation from Great Russians. While the majority of RBO members originated in the Lemko Region of Galicia, many of its founders and largest lodges originated in Hungary/Subcarpathia. In fact, in 1918 nearly 40 RBO lodges had a Subcarpathian majority, and a comparable number of lodges were loosely affiliated with Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes. Ru ssian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society (ROCMAS). A convention of church brotherhoods that had converted to Orthodoxy took place in September 1895 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. , the center of the Rusyn movement to Orthodoxy led by Father Alexis Toth. They formed a federation, and by the first national convention in 1896, eighteen brotherhoods were members. The Society issued a newspaper, Svit, written in a mixture of Galician Ukrainian and Russian . While somewhat concerned with cultural matters, the Society's primary goal was the defense and promotion of Orthodoxy among socalled " Little Russian" immigrants. It vehemently opposed Ukrainia- �SLOVAKIA 2021 33 nism and the Greek Catholic Church, and promoted a strict Russian identity almost as a necessary feature of Orthodoxy, to the detriment of the local or regional linguistic and cultural traits of its Rusyn membership. Many of its larger and older lodges were primarily Subcarpathian, e.g., Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, Scranton , Catasauqua, and Berwick. United Russian Orthodox Brotherhood of America. The organization, at its founding known as the Greek Catholic Pravoslavny Brotherhood, was established in 1915 mainly by former members of the GCU in southwestern Penn sylvania who had recently joined the Ru ssian Orthodox Church. The vast majority of its members hip was of Subcarpathian origin, particularly from the more eastern counties of Uz, Bereg and Maramoros. Within two decades it grew to around 20,000 members 11 . Position of Slovak Fraternals "There is no 'Slovak ' people" - so titled was an art icle in the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik, Aug. 29, 1918. The postwar years and the struggles over the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic would involve back-and-forth arguments between Ru syn American and Slovak American leaders, in print and, no doubt, in face-to-face meetings. But the root of the di strust undoubtedly was the early conflicts in these communities. The National Slovak Society, for its part, both supported the Rusyn people and disagreed at times with the position of the Rusyn leaders: National Slovak Society members expressed their concern for the fate of their brother Slavs, the Rusyns, who were now [World War I] experiencing the brunt of persecution in wartime Europe. Not only were repressive measures being taken against Rusyns in Carpathian Hungary, but in neighboring Galicia, Magyar troops were perpetrating wholesale massac res. This did not mean that the N.S.S. was conceding to th e claims of a Rusyn nationalism in Eastern Slovakia. Although support for the Slovak ca use in the region had been growing - largely thanks to the financi al support of the American Slovak community - certain elements considered the "S lovjaks" (i .e., Greek Catholics speaking the dial ect of the 11 Magocs i, Our People, 57. �34 SLOVAKIA 2021 eastern regions) as a separate nationality. The official N.S.S. policy was that the Slovjaks were Slovak, not Rusyn, Russian , or any other Slav people. 12 Political Actions During and Toward the End of World War I The Rus 'ko-Amerykans 'ka Rada (Rusyn/Ruthenian American Council) was established at a gathering in Philadelphia on December 8, 1914. By design it was to give equal leadership voice to Subcarpathian and Galician Rusyns, and under the patronage of Bishop Ortynsky, its directors included clerical and lay leaders from the Subcarpathian Rusyn community, especially Father Joseph Hanulya, editor of the United Societies newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian , George Gulanich and Ivan Zeedick of the GCU , and John Branik, president of the United Societies. At its Philadelphia meeting it condemned Russia and advocated for support of the political and cultural union of "Ukrainian (Rusyn)"-inhabited Galicia, Bukovina, and Hungary. 13 This entity ceased to exist with the death of Ortynsky in 1916, but not without drawing ire upon Father Hanulya for his participation. The American-Russian National Defense (ARND) / Narodna Obrana was founded in 1915 in Braddock, Pa. , near Pittsburgh, by Nicholas Pachuta. At the time Pachuta was assistant editor of the ARV, a post he held until 1918, under Michael Hanchin . National Defense styled itself the defender of Rus ' -ness against Magyarism in the Greek Catholic Church, was also critical of Slovakophiles and Ukrainophiles, and picked up members who were recent converts to Orthodoxy in the era of Bishop Stephen Dzubay. In May of 19 18 he met with Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the movement for a new state to be called Czechoslovakia, in Pittsburgh and began a discussion around the fate of Uhro-Rus ' (the Rusyn lands south of the Carpathians, historically part of Hungary). At that time Masaryk disregarded Pachuta's goals because his group "had no following or 12 R. Vl adimir Baumgarten and Joseph Ste fka , The National Slovak Society : 100 Year Histmy. 1890-/990. (Pittsburgh: Nation al Slovak Society, 1990), 76. 13 " Narodnyi z' "izd u Filiadel'fii"," Svoboda (Jersey City, NJ ), 19 December 1914, 2; Myron B. Kuropas, The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884- 1954 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 35 support among the broad masses of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants." 14 National Defense came around to the Czechoslovak option and delivered a memorandum to Masaryk in October endorsing autonomy within a Czechoslovak state. Around that time Pachuta converted to Orthodoxy, and in 1921 he united the National Defense with the American Russian Brotherhood based in C leve land. From 1922 until 1935 he was editor of the Russkij Vistnik newspaper of U ROBA. The League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia was a strictly Russophile political organization that drew most of its participation from individuals who were already active in organizations like ROCMAS and especially RBO. The vast majority of its members were of Galician background, but about 25% of delegates to its congresses were Subcarpathian Rusyns . 15 It held congresses in 19 17, 1918, and 1919 and made proclamations that Carpatho-Rusyn territory, a long with the who le of Galicia and Bukovina, should be part of Russia. The American National Counci l of Uhro-Rusins was founded in July of 1918 in Pittsburgh, with strong support from the United Societies and eventually the GCU . It grew to more than 100 branches, some of which had I 00 or even 200+ members. This was the organization in which the Pittsburgh attorney Gregory Zatkovich rose to leadership, began meetings with Masaryk, and which led to his post as the first governor of Subcarpathian Rus' . In Philadelphia on October 23, 1918, Zatkovich participated in the Mid-European Democratic Union in the presence of Masaryk . At that time Uhro-Rusyns - Rusyns of Hungary - were accepted as a distinct nationa lity, apart from Ukrainians who were already members. The National Counci l met at Scranton, Pa., on November 12, and formulated its final recommendation that Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians, including all of the original Uhro-Rusyn counties, be united in a Czechoslovak state with broad autonomy. The next day, the resolution was presented to Masaryk, who recommended that a plebiscite be held among American Uhro-Rusyns. 14 Joseph Danko, "Plebiscite of Carpath o- Ruthenians in the United States Recommendin g Union of Carpatho-Rutheni a with the Czec hoslovak Republic," Annals of !he Ukrainian Academy of Aris and Sciences, 11 , nos. 1-2 ( 1964-68), 186. 15 Prikarpalskaia Rus • (New York), Vol. I, o. I, October 191 8. �36 SLOVAKIA 2021 The American Uhro-Rusyn Plebiscite of December 1918 The American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, in conjunction with Masaryk's advice to Zatkovich, resolved to conduct a vote in Subcarpathian Rusyn parishes and fraternal lodges to determine their preferred action with respect to the homeland, among the options it had previously agreed to. Of course, they expected that the result would need to support what had already been decided: that Subcarpathian Rusyn territory should join the Czech and Slovak republic. This vote, then, was limited to the National Council's constituency: Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes - no Orthodox parishes and no Galician-majority parishes would be involved, even if they had substantial numbers of Subcarpathian Rusyn members; and lodges of the GCU and United Societies only, who were already seen to be inclined toward their leadership's preference for Czechoslovakia. The plebiscite was announced in only one issue of the ARV (Nov. 14, 1918), and commenced almost immediately thereafter. There is no extant evidence that there was campaigning within the communities to select a particular option; certainly there would have been very little time for that. We do have results of the vote, which was published in several installments in the ARV and Prosvita, and which were collected in "Plebiscite ofCarpatho-Ruthenians in the United States Recommending Union of Carpatho-Ruthenia with the Czechoslovak Republic" authored by Joseph Danko in 1968. 16 Option Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic Union with the Ukrainian Republic Total independence Union with Carpatho-Russians Union with Russi a Union with Magyar Land fHungaryl Union with Galicia Total Votes (% of tota l) 732 (66.4%) 310 (28. 1%) 27 (2.5%) 13 ( 1.2%) 10 (0.9%) 9 (0.8%) I (0. 1%) I , 102(/00.0%) Unsurprisingly, the organizers' preferred option won decisively, but not overwhelmingly. Based on the individual vote counts by parish and lodge provided by Danko, I would like to comment on some of 16 Danko, 200. �SLOVAKIA 2021 37 the more interesting things I observed. Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic (rank: I} As we will see, each of the options had some very surprising entities voting for them. This option's supporters included two parishes founded as Greek Catholic but which at the time of the vote had Orthodox pastors: Elkhorn, West Virginia (Father John Gratson) and Elizabeth, New Jersey (Father Gregory Varho l). Not very surprising was a vote by a large, mostly Subcarpathian parish of Rusyns from Spis, Saris and Zemplin Counties (Holy Ghost in Tremont), but whose pastor was Father Hanulya, former editor of the United Societies' first newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian - who for years as a supporter of Bishop Ortynsky had been attacked by the GCU in the pages of ARV for being a quasi-Ukrainian . Fourteen of the GCU lodges were based at majority-Galician parishes, although some of these lodges were primari ly Subcarpathian in membership. Union with the Ukrainian Republic (rank: 2) Figure 1. A portion of the American Rusyn communities that voted for union of Uhro-Rusyns with the Ukrainian Republic (66% of tota l votes cast). (Source: Danko, 196-198) The following voted for Uni on of Uhro-Rusins with Ukraini an Republic Societies of the Greek Catholic of Rusin Brothe rhoods in the USA 4 6 17 19 24 28 32 50 Mahoney City, Pa. Donmore , Pa. Rendham, Pa. Lansing, Pa . Eckle y , Pa. Glenlien, Pa. Sheppton, Pa. Mahoney Plane, Pa. (Figure I continues) 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 242 267 292 295 298 324 379 390 St. Clair , Pa. Hannastown, Pa. Wilkes-Barre , Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Baggaley, PP a . New Salem, Pa. Kester, Pa. McKees Rocks, Pa. 3 2 2 3 1 6 2 5 �38 SLOVAKIA 2021 Uhro-Rusins Greek Catholic United Congregations. I St. Johna SL Johna B. V. M. Bleaed TrinitY B. V. M. B. V. M. SL Michael B. V. M. Holy Ghost L Michael hen Scnnton, Pa. Bridgeport, Conn. New Salem, Pa. New Britain, Conn. Freebnd,PL Whitting, Ind. Ref. &am>lky P.ev. Cbomoc:t Rev.~ 400- 8 500-10 400- 8 Blnghamtoo, N.Y. Taylor, Pa. McKeca Rocb, PL St. Clair Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Rev. Thq2t Rev. Petraaovich Rev. A. Suba Rev. Ribovsk Rev. N. Chopey 550- 7 Lt Lansford, Pa. Rev. Martyak 550- 7 ~udloning, Pa. Ha eton, Pa. Rn. p ch Rev. Brinaky llef. Choarboch 500- 6 500· 6 600-12 600-12 550- 7 Rev. FeiuG !&J- s Overall this was the most surprising result, having the second highest number of votes. Some votes came from additionally surprising places. For example: the parish in New Britain had experienced an ugly split with Galician Ukrainians just eight years before, yet they still had a Galician pastor. The Wilkes-Barre parish ' s pastor was Father Nicholas Chopey, who had a few years before been numbered among the pro-Hungary clergy. The Lansford parish ' s pastor was Father Gabriel Martyak, administrator of the Uhro-Rusyn parishes in the wake of Bishop Ortynsky's death two years before. And the Hazleton parish that voted for this option, pastored by the Lemko priest Father John Fekula? This was actually the Galician parish (St. Michael) that split off from two existing Subcarpathian parishes in the same city. We must wonder how this parish had the opportunity to vote at all. The lodges that voted this way included largely-Galician GCU lodges in Glen Lyon (based at an old mostlyGalician parish) and Rankin (based at a mostly-Subcarpathian parish), �39 SLOVAKIA 2021 five other GC U lodges based at Galician-majority pari shes but with mostl y Subcarpathi an members, and a GCU lodge from Father Martyak's paris h in Lansford whose members were mostl y from Sari s and Zemplin Counti es. The following voted for Tou.l Independence of Uhro-Rusins. Societies of the Greek C. Union. ):: ~~•:· an !Im , a. \ Eynon, Pa. lmon, Pa. ~nton, ra. 2 1 I Gymnastic Branches. I61 11 Scranton, Pa. 67 Mahonoy City, Pa. 1 United Societies of Greek C. Religion I ss K.ingaton, Pa. 1 II 60 Edwardavillc, Pa. 2 j Uhro-Rusin Congregations 11 ¥ M : Holy Gbolt iililUIIII t11 Jcaup, Pa. 1&11 li•1 :Rev. Ivan I= i I Figure 2. The Ameri can Rusyn communities whi ch voted fo r tota l indepe ndence of Uhro-Rusyns (3 % of votes cast). (Danko, 198) Total independence of Uhro- Rusyns (rank: 3) Without any traditi on of self-rule, and without any real advocates fo r thi s pos ition, it is not surpri sing that it rece ived so few votes. It 's notable that not only did the pari sh and a GCU lodge in Jessup, Pennsy lvani a, contribute a number of the votes fo r thi s option, but two additional GC U lodges that did , in Eynon , Pennsyl va ni a, were a ffili ated wi th the Jessup pari sh as we ll. Jessup a lso had a large RBO lodge, but it is unlike ly that independence would have been the ir preference. �40 SLOVAKIA 2021 Union with Carpatho-Russians (i.e., Galicians, Bukovinians, UhroRusyns) (rank: 4) This position was represented among American Carpatho-Rusyns mainly by the League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia, although evidently few Subcarpathian Rusyns belonged to that organization, and to some extent originally by the American-Russian National Defense. The few votes for this option came mainly from Gary, Indiana 's GCU Lodge 469 and its Greek Catholic parish, which was primarily of Subcarpathian origin (in its western counties that would be incorporated into Slovakia) although it is not clear to this author why that would have been their choice. Union with Russia (rank: 5) The FolJowing voted for Union with Russia Greek Catholic Union. 550 Olyphant, Pa. 1 Gymnastic Branch 121 Jerome, Pa. I Uhro-Rusin Congregations a. V. M. Mahoooy City, Pa. lln. I. lubck 400- a Figure 3. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Russia (I % of votes cast). (Danko. 199) Among the votes for this option were GCU Lodge 530 in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, mostly Lemko in membership and based at a Galician-majority parish, and perhaps most curious of all , St. Mary 's Greek Catholi c Church in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, whose pastor was the noted Rusyn-language author and cultural patriot Father Emil Kubek. Kubek was also part of the leadership of the American I �41 SLOVAKIA 2021 National Council, which was not supportive of union with Russia at all. While he was not a Russophile, his relative lack of involvement with the GCU (and perhaps due to the RBO being founded in his parish) may have encouraged him to advocate for this option . Or more likely the decisive factor was the RBO's founding president, John Zincak Smith, also being the president of St. Mary's parish. Union with Magyar land (i.e., Hungary) (rank: 6) The Following voted for Union of Uhro-Rwins with Magyar Land Greek Catholic Union. 50 2 181 Clevdand, Ohio Clndand, Ohio Uhro-Rusin Congregations. St. John'• , ClcYeland, Ohio llev. Ballog soo- 6 I Figure 4. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Hungary (I % of votes cast). (Danko, 199) Even though many of the Subcarpathian Greek Catholic clergy in the U.S. were Magyarized (if not outright Magyarone), it doesn't seem that any attempt there may have been on their part to influence their parishioners to vote for this option was successful. The ARV denounced Hungary's policy toward its ethnic minorities for years in the lead up to the war. Despite Hungary's liberalized ethnic minority policy that began in 1915, inclination toward Hungary from American Rusyns seems to have changed little. Two GCU lodges voted for this option, but most striking is that six votes came from St. John's Church in Cleveland - not the Rusyn one that in 1918 had hired an Orthodox priest as its pastor - but the Magyar parish, pastored by Father Michael Balogh. This was the only ethnic-Hungarian parish to vote, and it's unlikely that Zatkovich and the American National Council had intended the plebiscite to include the Magyar parishes. (It's possible that they did, we just have no evidence on either side to say for sure.) Union with Galicia (rank: 7) Given the still substantial portion of the GCU's membership either �42 SLOVAKIA 2021 from Galicia or belonging to lodges based at Galician-majority parishes, we could have expected more votes for this option than were returned. However, a number of GCU lodges that were mostly or entirely Galician in membership (e.g., McKeesport Lodge 782, Wilmerding, Pa. , Lodges 348 and 360) - and based at Galician parishes - did not vote. It must be underscored that the plebiscite was not truly representative of the range of religious congregations and fraternal lodges found in the American Carpatho-Rusyn community, not even when speaking exclusively of those from Subcarpathia - the "Uhro-Rusyns." The Orthodox (except for two parishes which inexplicably did vote) were wholly unrepresented, and the significant fraternals RBO, ROCMAS , and fledgling UROBA were likewise ignored. Clearly it was meant to produce the additional justification Zatkovich needed to present the Scranton resolution to the Paris Peace Conference. 17 Understandably alarmed by this development, the activist Ukrainian American community opposed what they had hoped would be an outcome supporting their goal to unite so-called Ukrainian-Ruthenian ethnographic territory in a Ukrainian state. In so doing, they provided what seems to be the only eyewitness account of how the plebiscite was conducted in a Rusyn parish. Here writes a Ukrainian from Bridgeport, Conn .: Our Hungarian brother Rusyns want to unite Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine. On December 8 of this year, a parish meeting was held in Bridgeport, Conn. , right after the Divine Liturgy, in the parish school. The meeting was very interesting for every Ukrainian, because our brother Uhro-Rusyns decided on the fate of our and their brothers across the sea. Local speakers and Father Orest Cornjak [Chornock], local pastor, spoke. The meeting was convened for the purpose of deciding where Hungarian Rus' shou ld belong: whether to Ukraine or to the Czecho-Slovak state. Father Orest Cornjak stated his preference, that he would vote to belong to his brothers, that is, to the Ukrainians, rather than to the Czecho-Slovaks . After much discussion , it turned out that the Uhro-Rusyn 17 Victor S. Mamatey, "The Slovaks and Carpatho-Ruthenians," in Joseph F. O'Grady, ed .. The Immigrants· Influence on Wilson's Peace Policies (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967), 245-246. �SLOVAKIA 2021 43 leaders wanted to lead the Uhro-Rusyns to the Czecho-Slovaks, without questioning the Uhro-Rusyn people. And again the speakers protested against the "American National Council of UhroRusins" in America that no one has elected; its members of that Council are self-appointed leaders, that they have chosen themselves and have no right to speak in the name of the Uhro-Rusyn people, and further that they proposed an amendment so as not to vote either for Ukraine or against, nor to take a position against the Czecho-Slovak state, and so let it be as Uhro-Rusyns will decide in the old country. They also complained to the Ukrainians that at the founding of the " Mid-European Union" at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., they had to say that the Uhro-Rusyns are "a different people" from the Ukrainians, and thus the Ukrainians do not want to accept the UhroRusyns as an equal among equals and so for that reason will not vote in that way. When people were already wanting to leave, Mr. Ivan Boyko, head of the Ukrainian Athletic Association (Sich) in America, while asking forgiveness for the slurs that were committed by Ukrainians, and explaining that the Uhro-Rusyns had already decided at the founding council meetings in L'viv that Hungarian Rus ' should belong to Ukraine together with Galicia and Bukovina, said he did not see the reasons why the Uhro-Rusyns should not vote for the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine. He laid out what benefits the Uhro-Rusyns would have in a Ukrainian state, and what benefits they would have from the Czecho-Slovaks .. .. We Ukrainians, said Mr. Bojko, can never agree that our Hungarian brothers will be in the Czecho-Slovak state. [... ] It should be noted that the audience very intently listened to Mr. Bojko and took his every word to heart. After the speech the audience rewarded him with applause when the other speakers received no applause. Here Mr. Bojko did a great service to the Ukrainian people by proclaiming this speech to the Hungarian brothers, because then now the entire hall of people began to speak differently about it after the speech, because it was moved to vote by secret ballot, about where Hungarian Rus' should belong: whether to Ukraine, or to the Czecho-Slovak state, and another motion, to vote by roll call , so that you know who is against your brothers (Ukrainians). Father Comjak led by saying: Who is for �44 SLOVAKIA 2021 uniting Hungarian Rus' with Ukraine? It was decided unanimously on the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine, and then came the second ballot: Who is for uniting Hungarian Rus' with the Czecho-Slovaks? For this union with the Czecho-Slovaks there was only one vote. So, evidently, the Uhro-Rusyns want to unite with Ukraine. The statement made in Philadelphia by Misters M. Sichynsky and N. Ceglinsky, recognizing the Uhro-Rusyns as a separate nationality, with their representative as Mr. Zatkovich in the "MidEuropean Union," should be retracted for the good of the Ukrainian people and the Uhro-Rusyns . Instead, let them declare that the Uhro-Rusyns are our brothers by blood and by faith , and we can never agree that a second nationality would rule over our Hungarian brothers, even if it were Czecho-Slovakia. In Bridgeport, Conn ., Uhro-Rusyns do not recognize the "American National Council of Uhro-Rusins" because their people did not select them , and that self-styled Counci l has no right to push them into a Czecho-Slovak state, because the Uhro-Rusyn brothers want to unite Hungarian Rus ' with Ukraine. Glory to them for this! 18 The Ukrainian National Association's newspaper Svoboda reported on a Ukrainian National Congress that took place in January 1919. This congress included speakers on the situation in the Subcarpath ian Rusyn community in the U.S. and its recent Scranton resolution and fol low-on plebiscite. Father Kubek , editor of the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik [this is an error, he was not] was supposed to speak, but at the last moment he informed that he was not able to do so. His place was taken by a Galician priest, Father Vasyl' Merenkiv, who said, among other things: "In recent days I was in several Uhro-Rusyn parishes and spoke with several Uhro-Rusyn priest-leaders . We spoke about the idea of uniting Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine . I can assure the esteemed delegates that they are all committed to joining Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine more so than with Czec hoslovak ia. But still, I noticed that American Uhro-Rusyns are sti ll wavering." Mr. Ivan Hajovyc (of Maramoros), a delegate from the Chicago Uhro-Rusyns, was called to speak. He revealed his joy that he has an 18 "Svobidna vo lia uhors' kykh Ru syniv," Svoboda, 14 December 19 I 8, 2. �SLOVAKIA 2021 45 opportunity to speak to so many people who are interested in the fate of Uhro-Rusyns. He talked about the oppression that Uhro-Rusyns suffered from the Magyars. " We, Hungarian Ukrainians," said Mr. Hajovyc, "stand body and soul for the unity of Ukraine.We want to join with Ukraine! We are protesting against the plebiscite conducted among American UhroRusyn s, which was set up for the sake of uniting Uhro-Rus' with Czechoslovakia. Hungarian Ukrainians want to be united with Ukraine. We do not know what Czechoslovakia is and who CzechoSlovaks are. We never want to hear anything about joining them." Mr. Ivan Hundjak (a Galician) argued using statistics that the plebiscite initiated by Masaryk among American Uhro-Rusyns was conducted in a deceptive manner. Finally Mr. Ivan Skakandij, an Uhro-Rusyn cantor-teacher and delegate from Nesquehoning, Pa . was called to speak He regretted that in such an important moment Hungarian Ukrainians in America have not yet all been awakened to a life of national consciousness. " It is the fault of the Uhro-Rusyn clergy, who in the old country were led around by the Magyars and now by the Czechoslovaks. But nationally conscious Hungarian Ukrainians in America want to unite with Ukraine. We are just now awakening to life and there is hope that in a short time we will all be awakened." One speaker (Father Merenkiv) said " Hungarian Ukrainians in America are still waking up, but remember, that as we wake up , Masaryk will do nothing to help." 19 My observations about the results, it turns out, while I arrived at them independently, were noted to some extent already in 1919 in an article in the Ukrainian press. This is the speech by Ivan Hundjak (mentioned previously) in which he analyzed the resu lts and pointed out, among other criticisms, that if a person happened to be a member of a GCU lodge and the United Societies lodge in the same place, and the local Subcarpathian Greek Catholic parish, conceivably that person could vote up to three times. He noted as well (as Danko did) that participation among those eligible to vote was fairly low. He asserted that had these irregularities been taken into account, the leading result 19 "Z narodnohu z'izdu," Svoboda, 18 January 19 19, 2. �46 SLOVAKIA 2021 probably would have been for union with Ukraine. I would counter that had there been time, or the will, to more inclusively offer the vote to all American Subcarpathian Rusyn institutions, and not just the ones affiliated with the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, the results may indeed have been different, but more likely toward union with Russia, as impractical as that might have been. Reception of Czechoslovakia in the Rusyn American Community In May of 19 I 9, the cornerstone was laid in Homestead, Pennsylvania, for the Rusin Peoples Home. This event, under the patronage of the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, occurred just days before the National Counci l in Uzhorod, Subcarpathian Rus ', would accept the American Rusyns ' proposal to unite with Czechoslovakia. The commemorative booklet for this event 20 prominently featured a page with the American, Czechoslovak, and "Rusin" flags entwined, with the slogan "Old Glory Has Made This Federation (Czech-SlovakRusin) Possible." The pages following showed photographs of Zatkovich signing the declaration of the Mid-European Nationalities and Masaryk reading the declaration at a public manifestation in Philadelphia. The book ' s last page is a map showing Europe ' s ethnic groups within the new postwar borders, with Czechoslovakia labeled "Czechoslovaks" and to its east, "Uhro-Rusinia." It's not clear whether UhroRusinia is meant to be depicted as part of Czechoslovakia or not. Whatever the interpretation, this is probably the lone celebratory publication of American Rusyns to mark the decision to join the Czechoslovak Republic. A delegation of American Rusyn gymnasts affiliated with the GCU Sokol division travelled to Prague in the summer of 1920 to participate in a Pan-Slavic Gymnastics exhibition. As part of the trip they also visited Subcarpathian Rus ' and had an audience with Governor Zatkovich. One member of the delegation wrote, " In Prague we were 20 Souvenir Issued by the Rusin Peoples Home, Inc. on the Occasion of the Dedication ofthe Corner-Stone I Pamiatnik izdan ko,poratsieiu Russkii Narodny i Dom iz sluchai posviashcheniia kraeugol 'nago kamen 'ia. Homestead. Pa .. I 9 I 9 (Homestead, Pa., 19 19). �SLOVAKIA 2021 47 warmly welcomed by the Czechs and everything we saw in Prague and the way we were treated , we enjoyed ... " oi...o OLO ..... .. , . . MAO• T .. , . rcDll:.. 4Tt0N ie&&CW·~YAK "v.lNI ~ . . . • 1..• Figure 5. Page from the commemorative booklet for the cornerstone laying ofthe Rusin Peoples Home in Homestead, Pa., May 1919. Another wrote, " With thanks to God , with our appearance at the Pan-Slavic Sokol Meet in Prague, we made a mark in the history of our Sokol Branch which wi ll be permanent proof that we accomplished our mission , that we entered into the order of the Czechoslovak Sokol movement. . . We also left a lasting impression on the youth of Subcarpathian Rus ' ." The trip was promoted in the pages of ARV and chronicled fully in the 1921 almanac of the Sokol division. 2 1 It wou ld not be long before frustration over the lack of autonomy promised Subcarpathian Rus' by Masaryk would boil over in the American Carpatho-Rusyn press, especially when Zatkovich resigned in 1921 , and would continue at least until the late 1920s among Greek Catholics. The GCU printed a number of publications critical of Czechoslovak policy: Zatkovich's Otkrytie-Expose by vseho g ubernatora Podkarpatskoj Rus i, o Podkarpatskoj Rusi ( 1921 ), Wilson's Prin21 C heryl We ller Beck et al. , Opportuni~v Realized: The Greek Catholic Union 's First One Hundred Years, / 892-1992. (Beaver, Pa.: Gree k Catholic Uni on o f the U.S.A. , 1994), 75 . �48 SLOVAKIA 2021 ciples in Czechoslovak Practice: The Situation of the Carpatho-Russian People Under the Czech Yoke ( 1929) and Beskid's Karpatorusskaja pravda ( 1932). They would also lead a National Congress of Rusins in Pittsburgh in November 1922, which issued a memorandum to Prague condemning their policy toward Subcarpathian Rus '. American Rusyns in the Russian Orthodox Church and others of Russophile orientation would take up the opposition to Czechoslovak policy toward Subcarpathian Rus' through the 1930s. 22 I did not find any evidence - written or photographic - in Carpatho-Rusyn communities or parishes of widespread adoption of Czechoslovakia as a symbolic "homeland." There is certain ly no oral folklore around portraits of Masaryk (or Zatkovich, for that matter) being hung in parish halls as there is of portraits of Maria Theresa and Franz Josef from the early immigration. Lasting Impressions on Rusyn Americans of a Czechoslovak "Homeland" A list on the Wikipedia entry for Czech Americans of "The top 50 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Czech ancestry" 23 (based on the 2000 U.S . census) contains mostly predictable results - locations in North Dakota, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin , et al. An accompanying list, " U.S. communities with the most residents born in the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia)," however, contains a curious entry: tied for number IO was the little town of Colver, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles north of Johnstown in the west central part of the state. Colver, a former coal mining company town , had just a few primary ethnic groups : among these were Slovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns. It may we ll have sti ll had a few residents in 2000 who were born in the former Czechos lovakia. It is not clear that these results came from responses declaring their birthplace as "Czech Republic" or "Czechoslovakia," or either, but surely this population in Colver, Pennsylvania, was not ethnic Czechs. 22 Magocsi, Our People, 88-89. "Czech Americans", https ://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech Americans. Accessed December I, 201 8. 23 �SLOVAKIA 2021 49 The U.S. Census Bureau statistics for ancestry 24 (estimated from its 20 I 3 American Community Survey) show that Pennsylvania, historically the state with the largest number of Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants, had more than 52,142 residents with Czech ancestry, or 0.3% of Pennsylvania residents. This is much less than those who indicated Slovak or Ukrainian ancestry, many of which are likely of Carpatho-Rusyn background (or the completely unreali stic 193 ,000 with "Russian" ancestry), but still far higher than the hi storically low Czech settlement of the state would imply. In addition, "Czechoslovak ian" ancestry was estimated at 22,904, which could conceivably include any of Czech, Slovak, or Carpatho-Rusyn-descended individuals, although the much lower national consciousness of CarpathoRusyn Americans - reflected by the miniscule estimated 2,050 of that background - would lead one to expect most of those "Czechoslovak" individuals to have Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. That many Carpatho-Rusyn Americans of any particular geographic background in Carpathian Rus ' still exhibit confusion about their ethnic and geographical origins is not news to anyone. But it may be that Subcarpathian Rus ' belonging for 20 years to Czechoslovakia created a lingering geographic attachment to the idea of "Czechoslovakia" as the ancestral land of American Carpatho-Rusyns. Consider these newspaper clippings, maybe the most extreme examples of this phenomenon I've encountered. A perhaps unintended corollary to this phenomenon is the everincreasing use of genealogy websites where obituaries, gravestones, and other data are collected; many of the individuals - Carpatho-Rusyns and others - whose ge nealogical data is found on these sites have had their birthplace, which was probably entered by their descendant researcher as "Czechoslovakia," transposed by the site into "Czech Republic," further muddling Carpatho-Rusyn identity by placing Czechoslovak natives into the wrong modem-day country. Thus the main legacy of Carpatho-Rusyns' Czechoslovak homeland may well be their descendants eventually needing to educate themselves about 24 U.S. Census Bureau, Total Ancestry Reported: Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported, 2013 American Community Survey I- Year Estimates. https :// factfinder.census.gov/ faces/tableservices/ jsf/pages/productview.xhtml ?pid=ACS 13 I YR B04003&prodType=table. Accessed I December 2018. �50 SLOVAKIA 2021 the fact that Subcarpathian Rus ' was indeed part of Czechoslovakia and is not the modem day Czechia, nor Slovakia, for that matter. rites _____§s:,vtces for Mary - • 93, of 1220 Valley Road, Duncott, who died Friday morning at Pottsville Hospital, will be held at 9 :15 a.m. Tuesday !rom Dutcavich Funeral Home, Minersville. Further services will be held at 10 a .m . in Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville . The Very Rev. Michael Hatrak will officiate. Interment will be in the parish cemetery, Branch Township. Born public, sh late Metro and Sophie She came to the United States as a child, resided in the Heckscherville and Duncott areas and attended Heckscherville schools. She was a member of Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville, and was active in numerous church functions for many years. Figure 6. 1998 obituary of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant born in Lochovo, Bereg County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was " born in Lockaway, Czech Republic In any case, on this centennial of the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic, we can happily remember Mamatey's remark about the significance of American Carpatho-Rusyns' activities around this creation : "while the Slovak immigration in the United States affected Wilson's peace policies only indirectly ... the Carpatho-Ruthenian immigrants did so directly." 25 25 Mamatey, 249. �SLOVAKIA 2021 MARI( 51 R0CMR8ISlalf Pholo Woman celebrates turning 103 Mary 11111111 • l'Nident at York Terrace, Pottsville, wavee to ad- =:~==bi~ le now the Cziech Republ 1891, ahe larecenUy. • member of Sa. Born In Pa,1 ; lie Church, Mlnersvllle, and atlll enjoya muak:al and cooking actlvltlea at York Terrace. 7. 200 I news article of a birthday celebration of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant centenarian born in Cyganovci , Uz County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was "born in what is now the Czech Republic." Figure �52 SLOVAKIA 2021 "UIIRO . RUSINIA, PROPOSED THIUD STATE OF TUE CZl',()JJO!!LO'\"AK REPUBLIC " • 0 ...... ,,.....,....-_-...):/ ~ ( • • • ,. 1'14"-t.~ Figure 8. Map prepared in 1918 by Gregory Zatkovich depicting the proposed future state of "Uhro-Rusinia" within a federal Czechoslovakia, in which all Rusyn-inhabited lands on the southern slopes of the Carpathians were to be included. (Archive of Paul R. Magocsi , used with permission) � SLOVAKIA 2021 27 ENVISIONING A HOMELAND: CARPATHO-RUSYN IMMIGRANTS IN THE USA AND THE CZECHOSLOVAK OPTION 1 Richard D. Custer In the earliest decades of their life in the United States, relations between Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants were frequent and generally productive. But Czech immigrants neither settled in the same places most Rusyn immigrants went, nor had any notable higherlevel contacts with them. Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant newspapers, which were an important means for their readers to become aware of immigrant issues outside their own ethnic group, rarely made mention of Czechs until 19 16. Yet by late 1918, American Rusyn leaders were laying a foundation for their homeland countrymen entering into a new state with the Czechs and Slovaks. In the space of just a few months of the concept of the first Czechoslovak Republic being known to American Rusyns, a plebiscite conducted in some segments of the community resulted in a strong, though not overwhelming, preference for inclusion into the nascent Czechoslovak state. The results would prove decisive in the fate of post-Austro-Hungarian Subcarpathian Rus'. This article will examine why Czechoslovakia became and did, or did not, remain their preferred option. Early Settlement of Carpatho-Rusyns, Slovaks, and Czechs in the U.S.A. [n the formative years of the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant communities, these two Slavic peoples, in many cases already having occasional contact in their shared homeland, experienced times of cooperation and conflict that helped to firmly define their respective identities. Historic "U pper Hungary," specificall y the counties of Abauj /Abov, Szepes/Spis, Saras/Saris, Zemplen/Zemplin, and Ung/ Uz, 1 O ri gi nally presented at "Czec hoslovakia at I 00: Envisioning and Imagi ng Subcarpathian Rus"' panel , Association fo r Slavic, East European, and Euras ian Studies (ASEEES) annua l convention, Boston , MA, 6 December 2018. �28 SLOVAKIA 2021 experienced the highest rate of poverty and thus the highest rate of emigration to the United States starting in the late 19th century. In these counties - for the most part present-day eastern Slovakia - Slovaks were the majority, and Rusyns were a substantial minority. Some villages were ethnically mixed, or neighboring vil lages inhabited mostly by the other ethnic group. The first Slovak immigrants to the United States from Upper Hungary began to arrive in the late 1860s, and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants from Upper Hungary and Austrian Galicia began to arrive in the latter 1870s, but significant numbers of both were not found in the U.S.A. until the 1880s. The communities of both groups began to organize in the early 1880s. In general , Slovaks (particularly those from eastern Slovakia) and Carpatho-Rusyns settled in the same towns and cities in the U.S.A.: metropolitan New York City; Bridgeport, Connecticut; the anthracite coa l mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania; Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania; western Pennsy lvania; C leveland ; Chicago and northwestern Indiana; St. Louis; Minneapolis; and Detroit. 2 These areas were home to the vast majority of both Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn parishes and other organizations. The places where Slovaks were established that had no Carpatho-Rusyn presence were few, primarily in upstate New York and the Midwest. Specifically Slovak Roman Catholic parishes were founded in Haz leton , Pennsylvania. and Streator, Illinois ( 1885), and a Lutheran parish was founded also in Streator ( 1884), whi le the first CarpathoRusyn Greek Catholic parish was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1884. Their respective mutual-aid "buria l societies," or fraternal insurance lodges, were also founded at around the same time, the first such Slovak society being founded in New York City in 1883 3 , while the first such Ru syn soc iety was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1885 4 . 2 Konstantin Cul en, History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul, Minn .: Czechoslovak Genea logical Society International, 2007), 67-70; Paul R. Magocsi, Our People: Carpatho-Rusvns and Their Descendant.,· in North America. Fourth rev. ed. (Wauconda, Ill .: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2005), 20-22. 3 M. Mark Sto larik, "A Place fo r Everyone: Slovak Fraternal-Benefit Societies" in Scott Cummings ed., Se(f-Help in America: Patterns of Minoritv Business Ente1prise (Port Washington. NY: Kennikat Press, 1980), 130- 141. 4 Magocsi, 49. �SLOVAKIA 2021 29 In the homeland, Carpatho- Ru syns probably would have never met an ethnic Czech/ Bohemian or Moravian, except perhaps as young conscripts serving together in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War 1. 5 (And it is further unlikely that these men wou ld have found their way to the United States until after the end of the war.) Contact between Carpatho-Ru syn and Czech immigrants in the U.S.A. was similarly unlikely, and the two immigrant groups were of substantiall y different character. Czech immigrants began to arrive in the United States much earl ier: the largest number came in the late 1860s. A substantial portion of these immigrants were at least middle class and artisans, in strong contrast to the mostly peasant Slovak and CarpathoRusyn immigrants who took on unskilled jobs in the mines and mills. Finally, Czech settlements were generally in the Midwest and Texas, where farm land was easi ly obtai ned, far from the industrial setting that defined the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant experience.6 Only in cities like Ch icago, C leveland, and Pittsburgh were eastern S lovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns likely to encounter Czech immigrants, if at all. Additionally, Czech immigrants were increasingly less likely to worship in (Roman) Catholic churc hes and thus their contact with Slovak or (i n certain situations) Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants was not frequent. The early Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, then, in addition to frequent and essential contact with their Lemko Rusyn , Boiko, and Ukrainian co-religionists from Galicia in Greek Catholic parishes and fraternal organizations, were far more familiar with Slovak immigra nts as their neighbors, work friends , and perhaps spouses or extended family. To some extent, Carpatho-Rusyns' and Slovaks' fraternal benefit organizations developed along the same lines and in cooperation. Fraternal organizations were usually the first community institution estab lished in the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant settlements. These were built on the model of simi lar organizations in the homeland, in part as a replacement for the American insurance that was not usually ava il ab le to S lavic immigrants, and out of a need for 5 Magocsi, " The Ruthenian Decision to Unite with Czechoslovaki a," Sla vic Review, Vol. 34, o. 2 (June 1975), 364. 6 Thoma s Capek, The Cechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic and Religious life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 36-51 , 60-68. �30 SLOVAKIA 2021 an organization to rally the immigrants on an ethnic basis. The first of these societies arose in pioneer Slovak and Rusyn settlements in the 1880s and 1890s. Some were founded by Roman and Greek Catholics together, e.g., in Bridgeport, Connecticut ( 1888), Kingston, Pennsylvania ( 1887 or 1888), Streator, Illinois ( 1889), McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, Allegheny/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Passaic, New Jersey ( 1890). Some or most of these organizations would likely have joined the national Slovak organizations founded around that time: the National Slavonic Society of the United States (renamed National Slovak Society of the United States of America in 1913), or the First Catholic Slovak Union, FCSU/"Jednota," both founded in 1890.7 Rusyns would not have their own comparable organization until 1892. But the most striking example of a shared Slovak/Rusyn fraternal society was the Pennsylvania Slovak Roman & Greek Catholic Union (aka Pennsylvania Slovak Union or PSJ). Of all the Slovak-American fraternal societies this organization would count the largest number of Rusyn members, and more than 20 PSJ lodges were identified specifically as Greek Catholic or were based at a Greek Catholic church. 8 Despite having a generally common cultural background, and some shared religious affiliation and shared organizations, on an official level , the political goals of the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants did not always coincide, even as the idea of a Czechoslovak republic began to materiali ze. American Carpatho-Rusyn Fraternal Benefit Societies Greek Catholic Union (GCU). The GCU was the sec ul ar organization with the largest membership and widest geographical reach in the American Rusyn community. Its leadership, and editorial stance of its Amerikansky Russky Viestnik newspaper (ARV) , were generally anti-Hungarian, vehemently anti-Ukrainian, and mildly Russophil e, though never politically inclined to union with Russia. While its 1902 spinoff United Societies, loyal to America's first Greek Catholic 7 Stolarik, 130- 141. Ri chard D. Custer, "Old Countrymen, New Neighbors: Early Carpatho- Rusyn and Slovak Immigra nt Relations in the United States" in S/ovo (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rap ids, IA), Summer 2016. Unabridged version on line at https://www .ncsml .org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07 /Old-Countrymen-New-Neighbors.pdf, 6-7. 8 �SLOVAKIA 2021 31 Bishop Soter Ortynsky (an ethnic Ukrainian) since his arrival in 1907 and friendly to the Ga lician clergy, was the GCU 's antagonist on paper, they wou ld prove to be the al li es that would make possible a stronger voice that proved to be the one that caught the ear of the creators of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Slovaks - those who were Greek Catholics as we ll as Roman Catholics - made up a not insignificant portion of the GCU ' s membership, but early on the GCU took a strong stand against the idea that there were actually ethnic S lovak Greek Catholics.9 United Societies of the Greek Catholic Religion. The United Societies spun off from the GCU in 1902 and maintained a loya li st position toward the Greek Catholic Church, at times in opposition to what was perceived as the rebel li ous or disloyal GCU. In its support for Bishop Ortynsky, the society, its newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian ( 1910- 19 17), and its editor, Father Joseph Hanulya, were castigated by the GCU as Ukrainian sympathi zers. Around 1918, the United Societies had about 9,000 members including youth 10 , and published a newspaper, Prosvita, that remained often at odds w ith the GCU and its ARV. Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz (RNS) / Ukrainian National Association (UNA). The GCU in its early years, under c lerically-dominated leadership, became preoccupied with Rusyn affairs in Hungary and enunciated a generally pro-Hungarian political stance. This ali enated the significant membership from Galicia (most of whom were Lemkos), and many lodges, some even with substantial Subcarpathian membership, seceded from the GCU in 1894 to form a new organization . That organization, founded in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, was the Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz, or in English, Russian National Union . It we lcomed as members Rusyns from Hungary and Galicia who had a strong sense of national identity, whether "Rusyn," " Russian," or "Ruthenian ." As the organization and its Svoboda newspaper became more Ukrainian-oriented, and the terms Ukraine and Ukrainian increasing ly used alongside Rus' and Rusyn, those with Russophil e or Old-Ruthenian views wou ld transfer to other organizations, primarily 9 Custer, '" No Such Thing as Greek Catholic Slovaks: ' The GCU's Polemic," The Carpatho-Rusyns of Pennsylvania, http://rusynsofpa. blogspot.com/2 014/12/no-suchthing-as-greek-catholic-slovaks.html. Accessed December I, 201 8. 10 Magocsi, " Political Activity," 398. �32 SLOVAKIA 2021 the Russian Brotherhood Organization. The dominant "Ruthenian" segment would eventually lead the organization to change its name in September 1914 to the Ukrainian National Association. Alienated by this change, approximately 17 UNA lodges, 15 of which had a primarily Subcarpathian Rusyn membership, joined the United Societies between October 1914 and February 1915, resulting in 2 1 new regular United Societies lodges and 6 new United Societies youth lodges. Onl y a few such lodges would remain in the UNA, and so the organization's influence among American Subcarpathian Rusyns had almost entirely di ssipated. Russian Brotherhood Organization (RBO). Some members of GCU and RNS in 1900 gathered in Mahanoy City, Pa ., to form a new fraternal organization that would resist clerical domination, have no requirement of church membership, and avoid both pro-Hungarian and pro-Ukrainian political stands. Most of its early lodges were located in northeastern Pennsylvania and some had left the GCU or RNS to join. Religiously, the society remained officially neutral , but as a Ukrainian orientation came to dominate Ga lician Greek Catholic circles in the U.S.A. and in the homeland, the organization became much more supportive of the Orthodox Church, and an increasing portion of its membership reflected that. The RBO 's consistent stand on Ukrainianism was very negative, but simi larly, it opposed the idea that the Rusyn people's regional distinctions justified separation from Great Russians. While the majority of RBO members originated in the Lemko Region of Galicia, many of its founders and largest lodges originated in Hungary/Subcarpathia. In fact, in 1918 nearly 40 RBO lodges had a Subcarpathian majority, and a comparable number of lodges were loosely affiliated with Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes. Ru ssian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society (ROCMAS). A convention of church brotherhoods that had converted to Orthodoxy took place in September 1895 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. , the center of the Rusyn movement to Orthodoxy led by Father Alexis Toth. They formed a federation, and by the first national convention in 1896, eighteen brotherhoods were members. The Society issued a newspaper, Svit, written in a mixture of Galician Ukrainian and Russian . While somewhat concerned with cultural matters, the Society's primary goal was the defense and promotion of Orthodoxy among socalled " Little Russian" immigrants. It vehemently opposed Ukrainia- �SLOVAKIA 2021 33 nism and the Greek Catholic Church, and promoted a strict Russian identity almost as a necessary feature of Orthodoxy, to the detriment of the local or regional linguistic and cultural traits of its Rusyn membership. Many of its larger and older lodges were primarily Subcarpathian, e.g., Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, Scranton , Catasauqua, and Berwick. United Russian Orthodox Brotherhood of America. The organization, at its founding known as the Greek Catholic Pravoslavny Brotherhood, was established in 1915 mainly by former members of the GCU in southwestern Penn sylvania who had recently joined the Ru ssian Orthodox Church. The vast majority of its members hip was of Subcarpathian origin, particularly from the more eastern counties of Uz, Bereg and Maramoros. Within two decades it grew to around 20,000 members 11 . Position of Slovak Fraternals "There is no 'Slovak ' people" - so titled was an art icle in the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik, Aug. 29, 1918. The postwar years and the struggles over the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic would involve back-and-forth arguments between Ru syn American and Slovak American leaders, in print and, no doubt, in face-to-face meetings. But the root of the di strust undoubtedly was the early conflicts in these communities. The National Slovak Society, for its part, both supported the Rusyn people and disagreed at times with the position of the Rusyn leaders: National Slovak Society members expressed their concern for the fate of their brother Slavs, the Rusyns, who were now [World War I] experiencing the brunt of persecution in wartime Europe. Not only were repressive measures being taken against Rusyns in Carpathian Hungary, but in neighboring Galicia, Magyar troops were perpetrating wholesale massac res. This did not mean that the N.S.S. was conceding to th e claims of a Rusyn nationalism in Eastern Slovakia. Although support for the Slovak ca use in the region had been growing - largely thanks to the financi al support of the American Slovak community - certain elements considered the "S lovjaks" (i .e., Greek Catholics speaking the dial ect of the 11 Magocs i, Our People, 57. �34 SLOVAKIA 2021 eastern regions) as a separate nationality. The official N.S.S. policy was that the Slovjaks were Slovak, not Rusyn, Russian , or any other Slav people. 12 Political Actions During and Toward the End of World War I The Rus 'ko-Amerykans 'ka Rada (Rusyn/Ruthenian American Council) was established at a gathering in Philadelphia on December 8, 1914. By design it was to give equal leadership voice to Subcarpathian and Galician Rusyns, and under the patronage of Bishop Ortynsky, its directors included clerical and lay leaders from the Subcarpathian Rusyn community, especially Father Joseph Hanulya, editor of the United Societies newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian , George Gulanich and Ivan Zeedick of the GCU , and John Branik, president of the United Societies. At its Philadelphia meeting it condemned Russia and advocated for support of the political and cultural union of "Ukrainian (Rusyn)"-inhabited Galicia, Bukovina, and Hungary. 13 This entity ceased to exist with the death of Ortynsky in 1916, but not without drawing ire upon Father Hanulya for his participation. The American-Russian National Defense (ARND) / Narodna Obrana was founded in 1915 in Braddock, Pa. , near Pittsburgh, by Nicholas Pachuta. At the time Pachuta was assistant editor of the ARV, a post he held until 1918, under Michael Hanchin . National Defense styled itself the defender of Rus ' -ness against Magyarism in the Greek Catholic Church, was also critical of Slovakophiles and Ukrainophiles, and picked up members who were recent converts to Orthodoxy in the era of Bishop Stephen Dzubay. In May of 19 18 he met with Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the movement for a new state to be called Czechoslovakia, in Pittsburgh and began a discussion around the fate of Uhro-Rus ' (the Rusyn lands south of the Carpathians, historically part of Hungary). At that time Masaryk disregarded Pachuta's goals because his group "had no following or 12 R. Vl adimir Baumgarten and Joseph Ste fka , The National Slovak Society : 100 Year Histmy. 1890-/990. (Pittsburgh: Nation al Slovak Society, 1990), 76. 13 " Narodnyi z' "izd u Filiadel'fii"," Svoboda (Jersey City, NJ ), 19 December 1914, 2; Myron B. Kuropas, The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884- 1954 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 35 support among the broad masses of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants." 14 National Defense came around to the Czechoslovak option and delivered a memorandum to Masaryk in October endorsing autonomy within a Czechoslovak state. Around that time Pachuta converted to Orthodoxy, and in 1921 he united the National Defense with the American Russian Brotherhood based in C leve land. From 1922 until 1935 he was editor of the Russkij Vistnik newspaper of U ROBA. The League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia was a strictly Russophile political organization that drew most of its participation from individuals who were already active in organizations like ROCMAS and especially RBO. The vast majority of its members were of Galician background, but about 25% of delegates to its congresses were Subcarpathian Rusyns . 15 It held congresses in 19 17, 1918, and 1919 and made proclamations that Carpatho-Rusyn territory, a long with the who le of Galicia and Bukovina, should be part of Russia. The American National Counci l of Uhro-Rusins was founded in July of 1918 in Pittsburgh, with strong support from the United Societies and eventually the GCU . It grew to more than 100 branches, some of which had I 00 or even 200+ members. This was the organization in which the Pittsburgh attorney Gregory Zatkovich rose to leadership, began meetings with Masaryk, and which led to his post as the first governor of Subcarpathian Rus' . In Philadelphia on October 23, 1918, Zatkovich participated in the Mid-European Democratic Union in the presence of Masaryk . At that time Uhro-Rusyns - Rusyns of Hungary - were accepted as a distinct nationa lity, apart from Ukrainians who were already members. The National Counci l met at Scranton, Pa., on November 12, and formulated its final recommendation that Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians, including all of the original Uhro-Rusyn counties, be united in a Czechoslovak state with broad autonomy. The next day, the resolution was presented to Masaryk, who recommended that a plebiscite be held among American Uhro-Rusyns. 14 Joseph Danko, "Plebiscite of Carpath o- Ruthenians in the United States Recommendin g Union of Carpatho-Rutheni a with the Czec hoslovak Republic," Annals of !he Ukrainian Academy of Aris and Sciences, 11 , nos. 1-2 ( 1964-68), 186. 15 Prikarpalskaia Rus • (New York), Vol. I, o. I, October 191 8. �36 SLOVAKIA 2021 The American Uhro-Rusyn Plebiscite of December 1918 The American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, in conjunction with Masaryk's advice to Zatkovich, resolved to conduct a vote in Subcarpathian Rusyn parishes and fraternal lodges to determine their preferred action with respect to the homeland, among the options it had previously agreed to. Of course, they expected that the result would need to support what had already been decided: that Subcarpathian Rusyn territory should join the Czech and Slovak republic. This vote, then, was limited to the National Council's constituency: Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes - no Orthodox parishes and no Galician-majority parishes would be involved, even if they had substantial numbers of Subcarpathian Rusyn members; and lodges of the GCU and United Societies only, who were already seen to be inclined toward their leadership's preference for Czechoslovakia. The plebiscite was announced in only one issue of the ARV (Nov. 14, 1918), and commenced almost immediately thereafter. There is no extant evidence that there was campaigning within the communities to select a particular option; certainly there would have been very little time for that. We do have results of the vote, which was published in several installments in the ARV and Prosvita, and which were collected in "Plebiscite ofCarpatho-Ruthenians in the United States Recommending Union of Carpatho-Ruthenia with the Czechoslovak Republic" authored by Joseph Danko in 1968. 16 Option Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic Union with the Ukrainian Republic Total independence Union with Carpatho-Russians Union with Russi a Union with Magyar Land fHungaryl Union with Galicia Total Votes (% of tota l) 732 (66.4%) 310 (28. 1%) 27 (2.5%) 13 ( 1.2%) 10 (0.9%) 9 (0.8%) I (0. 1%) I , 102(/00.0%) Unsurprisingly, the organizers' preferred option won decisively, but not overwhelmingly. Based on the individual vote counts by parish and lodge provided by Danko, I would like to comment on some of 16 Danko, 200. �SLOVAKIA 2021 37 the more interesting things I observed. Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic (rank: I} As we will see, each of the options had some very surprising entities voting for them. This option's supporters included two parishes founded as Greek Catholic but which at the time of the vote had Orthodox pastors: Elkhorn, West Virginia (Father John Gratson) and Elizabeth, New Jersey (Father Gregory Varho l). Not very surprising was a vote by a large, mostly Subcarpathian parish of Rusyns from Spis, Saris and Zemplin Counties (Holy Ghost in Tremont), but whose pastor was Father Hanulya, former editor of the United Societies' first newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian - who for years as a supporter of Bishop Ortynsky had been attacked by the GCU in the pages of ARV for being a quasi-Ukrainian . Fourteen of the GCU lodges were based at majority-Galician parishes, although some of these lodges were primari ly Subcarpathian in membership. Union with the Ukrainian Republic (rank: 2) Figure 1. A portion of the American Rusyn communities that voted for union of Uhro-Rusyns with the Ukrainian Republic (66% of tota l votes cast). (Source: Danko, 196-198) The following voted for Uni on of Uhro-Rusins with Ukraini an Republic Societies of the Greek Catholic of Rusin Brothe rhoods in the USA 4 6 17 19 24 28 32 50 Mahoney City, Pa. Donmore , Pa. Rendham, Pa. Lansing, Pa . Eckle y , Pa. Glenlien, Pa. Sheppton, Pa. Mahoney Plane, Pa. (Figure I continues) 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 242 267 292 295 298 324 379 390 St. Clair , Pa. Hannastown, Pa. Wilkes-Barre , Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Baggaley, PP a . New Salem, Pa. Kester, Pa. McKees Rocks, Pa. 3 2 2 3 1 6 2 5 �38 SLOVAKIA 2021 Uhro-Rusins Greek Catholic United Congregations. I St. Johna SL Johna B. V. M. Bleaed TrinitY B. V. M. B. V. M. SL Michael B. V. M. Holy Ghost L Michael hen Scnnton, Pa. Bridgeport, Conn. New Salem, Pa. New Britain, Conn. Freebnd,PL Whitting, Ind. Ref. &am>lky P.ev. Cbomoc:t Rev.~ 400- 8 500-10 400- 8 Blnghamtoo, N.Y. Taylor, Pa. McKeca Rocb, PL St. Clair Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Rev. Thq2t Rev. Petraaovich Rev. A. Suba Rev. Ribovsk Rev. N. Chopey 550- 7 Lt Lansford, Pa. Rev. Martyak 550- 7 ~udloning, Pa. Ha eton, Pa. Rn. p ch Rev. Brinaky llef. Choarboch 500- 6 500· 6 600-12 600-12 550- 7 Rev. FeiuG !&J- s Overall this was the most surprising result, having the second highest number of votes. Some votes came from additionally surprising places. For example: the parish in New Britain had experienced an ugly split with Galician Ukrainians just eight years before, yet they still had a Galician pastor. The Wilkes-Barre parish ' s pastor was Father Nicholas Chopey, who had a few years before been numbered among the pro-Hungary clergy. The Lansford parish ' s pastor was Father Gabriel Martyak, administrator of the Uhro-Rusyn parishes in the wake of Bishop Ortynsky's death two years before. And the Hazleton parish that voted for this option, pastored by the Lemko priest Father John Fekula? This was actually the Galician parish (St. Michael) that split off from two existing Subcarpathian parishes in the same city. We must wonder how this parish had the opportunity to vote at all. The lodges that voted this way included largely-Galician GCU lodges in Glen Lyon (based at an old mostlyGalician parish) and Rankin (based at a mostly-Subcarpathian parish), �39 SLOVAKIA 2021 five other GC U lodges based at Galician-majority pari shes but with mostl y Subcarpathi an members, and a GCU lodge from Father Martyak's paris h in Lansford whose members were mostl y from Sari s and Zemplin Counti es. The following voted for Tou.l Independence of Uhro-Rusins. Societies of the Greek C. Union. ):: ~~•:· an !Im , a. \ Eynon, Pa. lmon, Pa. ~nton, ra. 2 1 I Gymnastic Branches. I61 11 Scranton, Pa. 67 Mahonoy City, Pa. 1 United Societies of Greek C. Religion I ss K.ingaton, Pa. 1 II 60 Edwardavillc, Pa. 2 j Uhro-Rusin Congregations 11 ¥ M : Holy Gbolt iililUIIII t11 Jcaup, Pa. 1&11 li•1 :Rev. Ivan I= i I Figure 2. The Ameri can Rusyn communities whi ch voted fo r tota l indepe ndence of Uhro-Rusyns (3 % of votes cast). (Danko, 198) Total independence of Uhro- Rusyns (rank: 3) Without any traditi on of self-rule, and without any real advocates fo r thi s pos ition, it is not surpri sing that it rece ived so few votes. It 's notable that not only did the pari sh and a GCU lodge in Jessup, Pennsy lvani a, contribute a number of the votes fo r thi s option, but two additional GC U lodges that did , in Eynon , Pennsyl va ni a, were a ffili ated wi th the Jessup pari sh as we ll. Jessup a lso had a large RBO lodge, but it is unlike ly that independence would have been the ir preference. �40 SLOVAKIA 2021 Union with Carpatho-Russians (i.e., Galicians, Bukovinians, UhroRusyns) (rank: 4) This position was represented among American Carpatho-Rusyns mainly by the League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia, although evidently few Subcarpathian Rusyns belonged to that organization, and to some extent originally by the American-Russian National Defense. The few votes for this option came mainly from Gary, Indiana 's GCU Lodge 469 and its Greek Catholic parish, which was primarily of Subcarpathian origin (in its western counties that would be incorporated into Slovakia) although it is not clear to this author why that would have been their choice. Union with Russia (rank: 5) The FolJowing voted for Union with Russia Greek Catholic Union. 550 Olyphant, Pa. 1 Gymnastic Branch 121 Jerome, Pa. I Uhro-Rusin Congregations a. V. M. Mahoooy City, Pa. lln. I. lubck 400- a Figure 3. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Russia (I % of votes cast). (Danko. 199) Among the votes for this option were GCU Lodge 530 in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, mostly Lemko in membership and based at a Galician-majority parish, and perhaps most curious of all , St. Mary 's Greek Catholi c Church in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, whose pastor was the noted Rusyn-language author and cultural patriot Father Emil Kubek. Kubek was also part of the leadership of the American I �41 SLOVAKIA 2021 National Council, which was not supportive of union with Russia at all. While he was not a Russophile, his relative lack of involvement with the GCU (and perhaps due to the RBO being founded in his parish) may have encouraged him to advocate for this option . Or more likely the decisive factor was the RBO's founding president, John Zincak Smith, also being the president of St. Mary's parish. Union with Magyar land (i.e., Hungary) (rank: 6) The Following voted for Union of Uhro-Rwins with Magyar Land Greek Catholic Union. 50 2 181 Clevdand, Ohio Clndand, Ohio Uhro-Rusin Congregations. St. John'• , ClcYeland, Ohio llev. Ballog soo- 6 I Figure 4. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Hungary (I % of votes cast). (Danko, 199) Even though many of the Subcarpathian Greek Catholic clergy in the U.S. were Magyarized (if not outright Magyarone), it doesn't seem that any attempt there may have been on their part to influence their parishioners to vote for this option was successful. The ARV denounced Hungary's policy toward its ethnic minorities for years in the lead up to the war. Despite Hungary's liberalized ethnic minority policy that began in 1915, inclination toward Hungary from American Rusyns seems to have changed little. Two GCU lodges voted for this option, but most striking is that six votes came from St. John's Church in Cleveland - not the Rusyn one that in 1918 had hired an Orthodox priest as its pastor - but the Magyar parish, pastored by Father Michael Balogh. This was the only ethnic-Hungarian parish to vote, and it's unlikely that Zatkovich and the American National Council had intended the plebiscite to include the Magyar parishes. (It's possible that they did, we just have no evidence on either side to say for sure.) Union with Galicia (rank: 7) Given the still substantial portion of the GCU's membership either �42 SLOVAKIA 2021 from Galicia or belonging to lodges based at Galician-majority parishes, we could have expected more votes for this option than were returned. However, a number of GCU lodges that were mostly or entirely Galician in membership (e.g., McKeesport Lodge 782, Wilmerding, Pa. , Lodges 348 and 360) - and based at Galician parishes - did not vote. It must be underscored that the plebiscite was not truly representative of the range of religious congregations and fraternal lodges found in the American Carpatho-Rusyn community, not even when speaking exclusively of those from Subcarpathia - the "Uhro-Rusyns." The Orthodox (except for two parishes which inexplicably did vote) were wholly unrepresented, and the significant fraternals RBO, ROCMAS , and fledgling UROBA were likewise ignored. Clearly it was meant to produce the additional justification Zatkovich needed to present the Scranton resolution to the Paris Peace Conference. 17 Understandably alarmed by this development, the activist Ukrainian American community opposed what they had hoped would be an outcome supporting their goal to unite so-called Ukrainian-Ruthenian ethnographic territory in a Ukrainian state. In so doing, they provided what seems to be the only eyewitness account of how the plebiscite was conducted in a Rusyn parish. Here writes a Ukrainian from Bridgeport, Conn .: Our Hungarian brother Rusyns want to unite Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine. On December 8 of this year, a parish meeting was held in Bridgeport, Conn. , right after the Divine Liturgy, in the parish school. The meeting was very interesting for every Ukrainian, because our brother Uhro-Rusyns decided on the fate of our and their brothers across the sea. Local speakers and Father Orest Cornjak [Chornock], local pastor, spoke. The meeting was convened for the purpose of deciding where Hungarian Rus' shou ld belong: whether to Ukraine or to the Czecho-Slovak state. Father Orest Cornjak stated his preference, that he would vote to belong to his brothers, that is, to the Ukrainians, rather than to the Czecho-Slovaks . After much discussion , it turned out that the Uhro-Rusyn 17 Victor S. Mamatey, "The Slovaks and Carpatho-Ruthenians," in Joseph F. O'Grady, ed .. The Immigrants· Influence on Wilson's Peace Policies (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967), 245-246. �SLOVAKIA 2021 43 leaders wanted to lead the Uhro-Rusyns to the Czecho-Slovaks, without questioning the Uhro-Rusyn people. And again the speakers protested against the "American National Council of UhroRusins" in America that no one has elected; its members of that Council are self-appointed leaders, that they have chosen themselves and have no right to speak in the name of the Uhro-Rusyn people, and further that they proposed an amendment so as not to vote either for Ukraine or against, nor to take a position against the Czecho-Slovak state, and so let it be as Uhro-Rusyns will decide in the old country. They also complained to the Ukrainians that at the founding of the " Mid-European Union" at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., they had to say that the Uhro-Rusyns are "a different people" from the Ukrainians, and thus the Ukrainians do not want to accept the UhroRusyns as an equal among equals and so for that reason will not vote in that way. When people were already wanting to leave, Mr. Ivan Boyko, head of the Ukrainian Athletic Association (Sich) in America, while asking forgiveness for the slurs that were committed by Ukrainians, and explaining that the Uhro-Rusyns had already decided at the founding council meetings in L'viv that Hungarian Rus ' should belong to Ukraine together with Galicia and Bukovina, said he did not see the reasons why the Uhro-Rusyns should not vote for the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine. He laid out what benefits the Uhro-Rusyns would have in a Ukrainian state, and what benefits they would have from the Czecho-Slovaks .. .. We Ukrainians, said Mr. Bojko, can never agree that our Hungarian brothers will be in the Czecho-Slovak state. [... ] It should be noted that the audience very intently listened to Mr. Bojko and took his every word to heart. After the speech the audience rewarded him with applause when the other speakers received no applause. Here Mr. Bojko did a great service to the Ukrainian people by proclaiming this speech to the Hungarian brothers, because then now the entire hall of people began to speak differently about it after the speech, because it was moved to vote by secret ballot, about where Hungarian Rus' should belong: whether to Ukraine, or to the Czecho-Slovak state, and another motion, to vote by roll call , so that you know who is against your brothers (Ukrainians). Father Comjak led by saying: Who is for �44 SLOVAKIA 2021 uniting Hungarian Rus' with Ukraine? It was decided unanimously on the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine, and then came the second ballot: Who is for uniting Hungarian Rus' with the Czecho-Slovaks? For this union with the Czecho-Slovaks there was only one vote. So, evidently, the Uhro-Rusyns want to unite with Ukraine. The statement made in Philadelphia by Misters M. Sichynsky and N. Ceglinsky, recognizing the Uhro-Rusyns as a separate nationality, with their representative as Mr. Zatkovich in the "MidEuropean Union," should be retracted for the good of the Ukrainian people and the Uhro-Rusyns . Instead, let them declare that the Uhro-Rusyns are our brothers by blood and by faith , and we can never agree that a second nationality would rule over our Hungarian brothers, even if it were Czecho-Slovakia. In Bridgeport, Conn ., Uhro-Rusyns do not recognize the "American National Council of Uhro-Rusins" because their people did not select them , and that self-styled Counci l has no right to push them into a Czecho-Slovak state, because the Uhro-Rusyn brothers want to unite Hungarian Rus ' with Ukraine. Glory to them for this! 18 The Ukrainian National Association's newspaper Svoboda reported on a Ukrainian National Congress that took place in January 1919. This congress included speakers on the situation in the Subcarpath ian Rusyn community in the U.S. and its recent Scranton resolution and fol low-on plebiscite. Father Kubek , editor of the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik [this is an error, he was not] was supposed to speak, but at the last moment he informed that he was not able to do so. His place was taken by a Galician priest, Father Vasyl' Merenkiv, who said, among other things: "In recent days I was in several Uhro-Rusyn parishes and spoke with several Uhro-Rusyn priest-leaders . We spoke about the idea of uniting Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine . I can assure the esteemed delegates that they are all committed to joining Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine more so than with Czec hoslovak ia. But still, I noticed that American Uhro-Rusyns are sti ll wavering." Mr. Ivan Hajovyc (of Maramoros), a delegate from the Chicago Uhro-Rusyns, was called to speak. He revealed his joy that he has an 18 "Svobidna vo lia uhors' kykh Ru syniv," Svoboda, 14 December 19 I 8, 2. �SLOVAKIA 2021 45 opportunity to speak to so many people who are interested in the fate of Uhro-Rusyns. He talked about the oppression that Uhro-Rusyns suffered from the Magyars. " We, Hungarian Ukrainians," said Mr. Hajovyc, "stand body and soul for the unity of Ukraine.We want to join with Ukraine! We are protesting against the plebiscite conducted among American UhroRusyn s, which was set up for the sake of uniting Uhro-Rus' with Czechoslovakia. Hungarian Ukrainians want to be united with Ukraine. We do not know what Czechoslovakia is and who CzechoSlovaks are. We never want to hear anything about joining them." Mr. Ivan Hundjak (a Galician) argued using statistics that the plebiscite initiated by Masaryk among American Uhro-Rusyns was conducted in a deceptive manner. Finally Mr. Ivan Skakandij, an Uhro-Rusyn cantor-teacher and delegate from Nesquehoning, Pa . was called to speak He regretted that in such an important moment Hungarian Ukrainians in America have not yet all been awakened to a life of national consciousness. " It is the fault of the Uhro-Rusyn clergy, who in the old country were led around by the Magyars and now by the Czechoslovaks. But nationally conscious Hungarian Ukrainians in America want to unite with Ukraine. We are just now awakening to life and there is hope that in a short time we will all be awakened." One speaker (Father Merenkiv) said " Hungarian Ukrainians in America are still waking up, but remember, that as we wake up , Masaryk will do nothing to help." 19 My observations about the results, it turns out, while I arrived at them independently, were noted to some extent already in 1919 in an article in the Ukrainian press. This is the speech by Ivan Hundjak (mentioned previously) in which he analyzed the resu lts and pointed out, among other criticisms, that if a person happened to be a member of a GCU lodge and the United Societies lodge in the same place, and the local Subcarpathian Greek Catholic parish, conceivably that person could vote up to three times. He noted as well (as Danko did) that participation among those eligible to vote was fairly low. He asserted that had these irregularities been taken into account, the leading result 19 "Z narodnohu z'izdu," Svoboda, 18 January 19 19, 2. �46 SLOVAKIA 2021 probably would have been for union with Ukraine. I would counter that had there been time, or the will, to more inclusively offer the vote to all American Subcarpathian Rusyn institutions, and not just the ones affiliated with the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, the results may indeed have been different, but more likely toward union with Russia, as impractical as that might have been. Reception of Czechoslovakia in the Rusyn American Community In May of 19 I 9, the cornerstone was laid in Homestead, Pennsylvania, for the Rusin Peoples Home. This event, under the patronage of the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, occurred just days before the National Counci l in Uzhorod, Subcarpathian Rus ', would accept the American Rusyns ' proposal to unite with Czechoslovakia. The commemorative booklet for this event 20 prominently featured a page with the American, Czechoslovak, and "Rusin" flags entwined, with the slogan "Old Glory Has Made This Federation (Czech-SlovakRusin) Possible." The pages following showed photographs of Zatkovich signing the declaration of the Mid-European Nationalities and Masaryk reading the declaration at a public manifestation in Philadelphia. The book ' s last page is a map showing Europe ' s ethnic groups within the new postwar borders, with Czechoslovakia labeled "Czechoslovaks" and to its east, "Uhro-Rusinia." It's not clear whether UhroRusinia is meant to be depicted as part of Czechoslovakia or not. Whatever the interpretation, this is probably the lone celebratory publication of American Rusyns to mark the decision to join the Czechoslovak Republic. A delegation of American Rusyn gymnasts affiliated with the GCU Sokol division travelled to Prague in the summer of 1920 to participate in a Pan-Slavic Gymnastics exhibition. As part of the trip they also visited Subcarpathian Rus ' and had an audience with Governor Zatkovich. One member of the delegation wrote, " In Prague we were 20 Souvenir Issued by the Rusin Peoples Home, Inc. on the Occasion of the Dedication ofthe Corner-Stone I Pamiatnik izdan ko,poratsieiu Russkii Narodny i Dom iz sluchai posviashcheniia kraeugol 'nago kamen 'ia. Homestead. Pa .. I 9 I 9 (Homestead, Pa., 19 19). �SLOVAKIA 2021 47 warmly welcomed by the Czechs and everything we saw in Prague and the way we were treated , we enjoyed ... " oi...o OLO ..... .. , . . MAO• T .. , . rcDll:.. 4Tt0N ie&&CW·~YAK "v.lNI ~ . . . • 1..• Figure 5. Page from the commemorative booklet for the cornerstone laying ofthe Rusin Peoples Home in Homestead, Pa., May 1919. Another wrote, " With thanks to God , with our appearance at the Pan-Slavic Sokol Meet in Prague, we made a mark in the history of our Sokol Branch which wi ll be permanent proof that we accomplished our mission , that we entered into the order of the Czechoslovak Sokol movement. . . We also left a lasting impression on the youth of Subcarpathian Rus ' ." The trip was promoted in the pages of ARV and chronicled fully in the 1921 almanac of the Sokol division. 2 1 It wou ld not be long before frustration over the lack of autonomy promised Subcarpathian Rus' by Masaryk would boil over in the American Carpatho-Rusyn press, especially when Zatkovich resigned in 1921 , and would continue at least until the late 1920s among Greek Catholics. The GCU printed a number of publications critical of Czechoslovak policy: Zatkovich's Otkrytie-Expose by vseho g ubernatora Podkarpatskoj Rus i, o Podkarpatskoj Rusi ( 1921 ), Wilson's Prin21 C heryl We ller Beck et al. , Opportuni~v Realized: The Greek Catholic Union 's First One Hundred Years, / 892-1992. (Beaver, Pa.: Gree k Catholic Uni on o f the U.S.A. , 1994), 75 . �48 SLOVAKIA 2021 ciples in Czechoslovak Practice: The Situation of the Carpatho-Russian People Under the Czech Yoke ( 1929) and Beskid's Karpatorusskaja pravda ( 1932). They would also lead a National Congress of Rusins in Pittsburgh in November 1922, which issued a memorandum to Prague condemning their policy toward Subcarpathian Rus '. American Rusyns in the Russian Orthodox Church and others of Russophile orientation would take up the opposition to Czechoslovak policy toward Subcarpathian Rus' through the 1930s. 22 I did not find any evidence - written or photographic - in Carpatho-Rusyn communities or parishes of widespread adoption of Czechoslovakia as a symbolic "homeland." There is certain ly no oral folklore around portraits of Masaryk (or Zatkovich, for that matter) being hung in parish halls as there is of portraits of Maria Theresa and Franz Josef from the early immigration. Lasting Impressions on Rusyn Americans of a Czechoslovak "Homeland" A list on the Wikipedia entry for Czech Americans of "The top 50 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Czech ancestry" 23 (based on the 2000 U.S . census) contains mostly predictable results - locations in North Dakota, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin , et al. An accompanying list, " U.S. communities with the most residents born in the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia)," however, contains a curious entry: tied for number IO was the little town of Colver, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles north of Johnstown in the west central part of the state. Colver, a former coal mining company town , had just a few primary ethnic groups : among these were Slovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns. It may we ll have sti ll had a few residents in 2000 who were born in the former Czechos lovakia. It is not clear that these results came from responses declaring their birthplace as "Czech Republic" or "Czechoslovakia," or either, but surely this population in Colver, Pennsylvania, was not ethnic Czechs. 22 Magocsi, Our People, 88-89. "Czech Americans", https ://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech Americans. Accessed December I, 201 8. 23 �SLOVAKIA 2021 49 The U.S. Census Bureau statistics for ancestry 24 (estimated from its 20 I 3 American Community Survey) show that Pennsylvania, historically the state with the largest number of Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants, had more than 52,142 residents with Czech ancestry, or 0.3% of Pennsylvania residents. This is much less than those who indicated Slovak or Ukrainian ancestry, many of which are likely of Carpatho-Rusyn background (or the completely unreali stic 193 ,000 with "Russian" ancestry), but still far higher than the hi storically low Czech settlement of the state would imply. In addition, "Czechoslovak ian" ancestry was estimated at 22,904, which could conceivably include any of Czech, Slovak, or Carpatho-Rusyn-descended individuals, although the much lower national consciousness of CarpathoRusyn Americans - reflected by the miniscule estimated 2,050 of that background - would lead one to expect most of those "Czechoslovak" individuals to have Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. That many Carpatho-Rusyn Americans of any particular geographic background in Carpathian Rus ' still exhibit confusion about their ethnic and geographical origins is not news to anyone. But it may be that Subcarpathian Rus ' belonging for 20 years to Czechoslovakia created a lingering geographic attachment to the idea of "Czechoslovakia" as the ancestral land of American Carpatho-Rusyns. Consider these newspaper clippings, maybe the most extreme examples of this phenomenon I've encountered. A perhaps unintended corollary to this phenomenon is the everincreasing use of genealogy websites where obituaries, gravestones, and other data are collected; many of the individuals - Carpatho-Rusyns and others - whose ge nealogical data is found on these sites have had their birthplace, which was probably entered by their descendant researcher as "Czechoslovakia," transposed by the site into "Czech Republic," further muddling Carpatho-Rusyn identity by placing Czechoslovak natives into the wrong modem-day country. Thus the main legacy of Carpatho-Rusyns' Czechoslovak homeland may well be their descendants eventually needing to educate themselves about 24 U.S. Census Bureau, Total Ancestry Reported: Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported, 2013 American Community Survey I- Year Estimates. https :// factfinder.census.gov/ faces/tableservices/ jsf/pages/productview.xhtml ?pid=ACS 13 I YR B04003&prodType=table. Accessed I December 2018. �50 SLOVAKIA 2021 the fact that Subcarpathian Rus ' was indeed part of Czechoslovakia and is not the modem day Czechia, nor Slovakia, for that matter. rites _____§s:,vtces for Mary - • 93, of 1220 Valley Road, Duncott, who died Friday morning at Pottsville Hospital, will be held at 9 :15 a.m. Tuesday !rom Dutcavich Funeral Home, Minersville. Further services will be held at 10 a .m . in Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville . The Very Rev. Michael Hatrak will officiate. Interment will be in the parish cemetery, Branch Township. Born public, sh late Metro and Sophie She came to the United States as a child, resided in the Heckscherville and Duncott areas and attended Heckscherville schools. She was a member of Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville, and was active in numerous church functions for many years. Figure 6. 1998 obituary of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant born in Lochovo, Bereg County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was " born in Lockaway, Czech Republic In any case, on this centennial of the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic, we can happily remember Mamatey's remark about the significance of American Carpatho-Rusyns' activities around this creation : "while the Slovak immigration in the United States affected Wilson's peace policies only indirectly ... the Carpatho-Ruthenian immigrants did so directly." 25 25 Mamatey, 249. �SLOVAKIA 2021 MARI( 51 R0CMR8ISlalf Pholo Woman celebrates turning 103 Mary 11111111 • l'Nident at York Terrace, Pottsville, wavee to ad- =:~==bi~ le now the Cziech Republ 1891, ahe larecenUy. • member of Sa. Born In Pa,1 ; lie Church, Mlnersvllle, and atlll enjoya muak:al and cooking actlvltlea at York Terrace. 7. 200 I news article of a birthday celebration of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant centenarian born in Cyganovci , Uz County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was "born in what is now the Czech Republic." Figure �52 SLOVAKIA 2021 "UIIRO . RUSINIA, PROPOSED THIUD STATE OF TUE CZl',()JJO!!LO'\"AK REPUBLIC " • 0 ...... ,,.....,....-_-...):/ ~ ( • • • ,. 1'14"-t.~ Figure 8. Map prepared in 1918 by Gregory Zatkovich depicting the proposed future state of "Uhro-Rusinia" within a federal Czechoslovakia, in which all Rusyn-inhabited lands on the southern slopes of the Carpathians were to be included. (Archive of Paul R. Magocsi , used with permission) � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 27 ENVISIONING A HOMELAND: CARPATHO-RUSYN IMMIGRANTS IN THE USA AND THE CZECHOSLOVAK OPTION 1 Richard D. Custer In the earliest decades of their life in the United States, relations between Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants were frequent and generally productive. But Czech immigrants neither settled in the same places most Rusyn immigrants went, nor had any notable higherlevel contacts with them. Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant newspapers, which were an important means for their readers to become aware of immigrant issues outside their own ethnic group, rarely made mention of Czechs until 19 16. Yet by late 1918, American Rusyn leaders were laying a foundation for their homeland countrymen entering into a new state with the Czechs and Slovaks. In the space of just a few months of the concept of the first Czechoslovak Republic being known to American Rusyns, a plebiscite conducted in some segments of the community resulted in a strong, though not overwhelming, preference for inclusion into the nascent Czechoslovak state. The results would prove decisive in the fate of post-Austro-Hungarian Subcarpathian Rus'. This article will examine why Czechoslovakia became and did, or did not, remain their preferred option. Early Settlement of Carpatho-Rusyns, Slovaks, and Czechs in the U.S.A. [n the formative years of the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant communities, these two Slavic peoples, in many cases already having occasional contact in their shared homeland, experienced times of cooperation and conflict that helped to firmly define their respective identities. Historic "U pper Hungary," specificall y the counties of Abauj /Abov, Szepes/Spis, Saras/Saris, Zemplen/Zemplin, and Ung/ Uz, 1 O ri gi nally presented at "Czec hoslovakia at I 00: Envisioning and Imagi ng Subcarpathian Rus"' panel , Association fo r Slavic, East European, and Euras ian Studies (ASEEES) annua l convention, Boston , MA, 6 December 2018. 28 SLOVAKIA 2021 experienced the highest rate of poverty and thus the highest rate of emigration to the United States starting in the late 19th century. In these counties - for the most part present-day eastern Slovakia - Slovaks were the majority, and Rusyns were a substantial minority. Some villages were ethnically mixed, or neighboring vil lages inhabited mostly by the other ethnic group. The first Slovak immigrants to the United States from Upper Hungary began to arrive in the late 1860s, and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants from Upper Hungary and Austrian Galicia began to arrive in the latter 1870s, but significant numbers of both were not found in the U.S.A. until the 1880s. The communities of both groups began to organize in the early 1880s. In general , Slovaks (particularly those from eastern Slovakia) and Carpatho-Rusyns settled in the same towns and cities in the U.S.A.: metropolitan New York City; Bridgeport, Connecticut; the anthracite coa l mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania; Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania; western Pennsy lvania; C leveland ; Chicago and northwestern Indiana; St. Louis; Minneapolis; and Detroit. 2 These areas were home to the vast majority of both Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn parishes and other organizations. The places where Slovaks were established that had no Carpatho-Rusyn presence were few, primarily in upstate New York and the Midwest. Specifically Slovak Roman Catholic parishes were founded in Haz leton , Pennsylvania. and Streator, Illinois ( 1885), and a Lutheran parish was founded also in Streator ( 1884), whi le the first CarpathoRusyn Greek Catholic parish was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1884. Their respective mutual-aid "buria l societies," or fraternal insurance lodges, were also founded at around the same time, the first such Slovak society being founded in New York City in 1883 3 , while the first such Ru syn soc iety was founded in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1885 4 . 2 Konstantin Cul en, History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul, Minn .: Czechoslovak Genea logical Society International, 2007), 67-70; Paul R. Magocsi, Our People: Carpatho-Rusvns and Their Descendant.,· in North America. Fourth rev. ed. (Wauconda, Ill .: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2005), 20-22. 3 M. Mark Sto larik, "A Place fo r Everyone: Slovak Fraternal-Benefit Societies" in Scott Cummings ed., Se(f-Help in America: Patterns of Minoritv Business Ente1prise (Port Washington. NY: Kennikat Press, 1980), 130- 141. 4 Magocsi, 49. SLOVAKIA 2021 29 In the homeland, Carpatho- Ru syns probably would have never met an ethnic Czech/ Bohemian or Moravian, except perhaps as young conscripts serving together in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War 1. 5 (And it is further unlikely that these men wou ld have found their way to the United States until after the end of the war.) Contact between Carpatho-Ru syn and Czech immigrants in the U.S.A. was similarly unlikely, and the two immigrant groups were of substantiall y different character. Czech immigrants began to arrive in the United States much earl ier: the largest number came in the late 1860s. A substantial portion of these immigrants were at least middle class and artisans, in strong contrast to the mostly peasant Slovak and CarpathoRusyn immigrants who took on unskilled jobs in the mines and mills. Finally, Czech settlements were generally in the Midwest and Texas, where farm land was easi ly obtai ned, far from the industrial setting that defined the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant experience.6 Only in cities like Ch icago, C leveland, and Pittsburgh were eastern S lovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns likely to encounter Czech immigrants, if at all. Additionally, Czech immigrants were increasingly less likely to worship in (Roman) Catholic churc hes and thus their contact with Slovak or (i n certain situations) Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants was not frequent. The early Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, then, in addition to frequent and essential contact with their Lemko Rusyn , Boiko, and Ukrainian co-religionists from Galicia in Greek Catholic parishes and fraternal organizations, were far more familiar with Slovak immigra nts as their neighbors, work friends , and perhaps spouses or extended family. To some extent, Carpatho-Rusyns' and Slovaks' fraternal benefit organizations developed along the same lines and in cooperation. Fraternal organizations were usually the first community institution estab lished in the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrant settlements. These were built on the model of simi lar organizations in the homeland, in part as a replacement for the American insurance that was not usually ava il ab le to S lavic immigrants, and out of a need for 5 Magocsi, " The Ruthenian Decision to Unite with Czechoslovaki a," Sla vic Review, Vol. 34, o. 2 (June 1975), 364. 6 Thoma s Capek, The Cechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic and Religious life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 36-51 , 60-68. 30 SLOVAKIA 2021 an organization to rally the immigrants on an ethnic basis. The first of these societies arose in pioneer Slovak and Rusyn settlements in the 1880s and 1890s. Some were founded by Roman and Greek Catholics together, e.g., in Bridgeport, Connecticut ( 1888), Kingston, Pennsylvania ( 1887 or 1888), Streator, Illinois ( 1889), McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, Allegheny/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Passaic, New Jersey ( 1890). Some or most of these organizations would likely have joined the national Slovak organizations founded around that time: the National Slavonic Society of the United States (renamed National Slovak Society of the United States of America in 1913), or the First Catholic Slovak Union, FCSU/"Jednota," both founded in 1890.7 Rusyns would not have their own comparable organization until 1892. But the most striking example of a shared Slovak/Rusyn fraternal society was the Pennsylvania Slovak Roman & Greek Catholic Union (aka Pennsylvania Slovak Union or PSJ). Of all the Slovak-American fraternal societies this organization would count the largest number of Rusyn members, and more than 20 PSJ lodges were identified specifically as Greek Catholic or were based at a Greek Catholic church. 8 Despite having a generally common cultural background, and some shared religious affiliation and shared organizations, on an official level , the political goals of the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants did not always coincide, even as the idea of a Czechoslovak republic began to materiali ze. American Carpatho-Rusyn Fraternal Benefit Societies Greek Catholic Union (GCU). The GCU was the sec ul ar organization with the largest membership and widest geographical reach in the American Rusyn community. Its leadership, and editorial stance of its Amerikansky Russky Viestnik newspaper (ARV) , were generally anti-Hungarian, vehemently anti-Ukrainian, and mildly Russophil e, though never politically inclined to union with Russia. While its 1902 spinoff United Societies, loyal to America's first Greek Catholic 7 Stolarik, 130- 141. Ri chard D. Custer, "Old Countrymen, New Neighbors: Early Carpatho- Rusyn and Slovak Immigra nt Relations in the United States" in S/ovo (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rap ids, IA), Summer 2016. Unabridged version on line at https://www .ncsml .org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07 /Old-Countrymen-New-Neighbors.pdf, 6-7. 8 SLOVAKIA 2021 31 Bishop Soter Ortynsky (an ethnic Ukrainian) since his arrival in 1907 and friendly to the Ga lician clergy, was the GCU 's antagonist on paper, they wou ld prove to be the al li es that would make possible a stronger voice that proved to be the one that caught the ear of the creators of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Slovaks - those who were Greek Catholics as we ll as Roman Catholics - made up a not insignificant portion of the GCU ' s membership, but early on the GCU took a strong stand against the idea that there were actually ethnic S lovak Greek Catholics.9 United Societies of the Greek Catholic Religion. The United Societies spun off from the GCU in 1902 and maintained a loya li st position toward the Greek Catholic Church, at times in opposition to what was perceived as the rebel li ous or disloyal GCU. In its support for Bishop Ortynsky, the society, its newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian ( 1910- 19 17), and its editor, Father Joseph Hanulya, were castigated by the GCU as Ukrainian sympathi zers. Around 1918, the United Societies had about 9,000 members including youth 10 , and published a newspaper, Prosvita, that remained often at odds w ith the GCU and its ARV. Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz (RNS) / Ukrainian National Association (UNA). The GCU in its early years, under c lerically-dominated leadership, became preoccupied with Rusyn affairs in Hungary and enunciated a generally pro-Hungarian political stance. This ali enated the significant membership from Galicia (most of whom were Lemkos), and many lodges, some even with substantial Subcarpathian membership, seceded from the GCU in 1894 to form a new organization . That organization, founded in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, was the Ruskij Narodnyj Sojuz, or in English, Russian National Union . It we lcomed as members Rusyns from Hungary and Galicia who had a strong sense of national identity, whether "Rusyn," " Russian," or "Ruthenian ." As the organization and its Svoboda newspaper became more Ukrainian-oriented, and the terms Ukraine and Ukrainian increasing ly used alongside Rus' and Rusyn, those with Russophil e or Old-Ruthenian views wou ld transfer to other organizations, primarily 9 Custer, '" No Such Thing as Greek Catholic Slovaks: ' The GCU's Polemic," The Carpatho-Rusyns of Pennsylvania, http://rusynsofpa. blogspot.com/2 014/12/no-suchthing-as-greek-catholic-slovaks.html. Accessed December I, 201 8. 10 Magocsi, " Political Activity," 398. 32 SLOVAKIA 2021 the Russian Brotherhood Organization. The dominant "Ruthenian" segment would eventually lead the organization to change its name in September 1914 to the Ukrainian National Association. Alienated by this change, approximately 17 UNA lodges, 15 of which had a primarily Subcarpathian Rusyn membership, joined the United Societies between October 1914 and February 1915, resulting in 2 1 new regular United Societies lodges and 6 new United Societies youth lodges. Onl y a few such lodges would remain in the UNA, and so the organization's influence among American Subcarpathian Rusyns had almost entirely di ssipated. Russian Brotherhood Organization (RBO). Some members of GCU and RNS in 1900 gathered in Mahanoy City, Pa ., to form a new fraternal organization that would resist clerical domination, have no requirement of church membership, and avoid both pro-Hungarian and pro-Ukrainian political stands. Most of its early lodges were located in northeastern Pennsylvania and some had left the GCU or RNS to join. Religiously, the society remained officially neutral , but as a Ukrainian orientation came to dominate Ga lician Greek Catholic circles in the U.S.A. and in the homeland, the organization became much more supportive of the Orthodox Church, and an increasing portion of its membership reflected that. The RBO 's consistent stand on Ukrainianism was very negative, but simi larly, it opposed the idea that the Rusyn people's regional distinctions justified separation from Great Russians. While the majority of RBO members originated in the Lemko Region of Galicia, many of its founders and largest lodges originated in Hungary/Subcarpathia. In fact, in 1918 nearly 40 RBO lodges had a Subcarpathian majority, and a comparable number of lodges were loosely affiliated with Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes. Ru ssian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society (ROCMAS). A convention of church brotherhoods that had converted to Orthodoxy took place in September 1895 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. , the center of the Rusyn movement to Orthodoxy led by Father Alexis Toth. They formed a federation, and by the first national convention in 1896, eighteen brotherhoods were members. The Society issued a newspaper, Svit, written in a mixture of Galician Ukrainian and Russian . While somewhat concerned with cultural matters, the Society's primary goal was the defense and promotion of Orthodoxy among socalled " Little Russian" immigrants. It vehemently opposed Ukrainia- SLOVAKIA 2021 33 nism and the Greek Catholic Church, and promoted a strict Russian identity almost as a necessary feature of Orthodoxy, to the detriment of the local or regional linguistic and cultural traits of its Rusyn membership. Many of its larger and older lodges were primarily Subcarpathian, e.g., Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, Scranton , Catasauqua, and Berwick. United Russian Orthodox Brotherhood of America. The organization, at its founding known as the Greek Catholic Pravoslavny Brotherhood, was established in 1915 mainly by former members of the GCU in southwestern Penn sylvania who had recently joined the Ru ssian Orthodox Church. The vast majority of its members hip was of Subcarpathian origin, particularly from the more eastern counties of Uz, Bereg and Maramoros. Within two decades it grew to around 20,000 members 11 . Position of Slovak Fraternals "There is no 'Slovak ' people" - so titled was an art icle in the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik, Aug. 29, 1918. The postwar years and the struggles over the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic would involve back-and-forth arguments between Ru syn American and Slovak American leaders, in print and, no doubt, in face-to-face meetings. But the root of the di strust undoubtedly was the early conflicts in these communities. The National Slovak Society, for its part, both supported the Rusyn people and disagreed at times with the position of the Rusyn leaders: National Slovak Society members expressed their concern for the fate of their brother Slavs, the Rusyns, who were now [World War I] experiencing the brunt of persecution in wartime Europe. Not only were repressive measures being taken against Rusyns in Carpathian Hungary, but in neighboring Galicia, Magyar troops were perpetrating wholesale massac res. This did not mean that the N.S.S. was conceding to th e claims of a Rusyn nationalism in Eastern Slovakia. Although support for the Slovak ca use in the region had been growing - largely thanks to the financi al support of the American Slovak community - certain elements considered the "S lovjaks" (i .e., Greek Catholics speaking the dial ect of the 11 Magocs i, Our People, 57. 34 SLOVAKIA 2021 eastern regions) as a separate nationality. The official N.S.S. policy was that the Slovjaks were Slovak, not Rusyn, Russian , or any other Slav people. 12 Political Actions During and Toward the End of World War I The Rus 'ko-Amerykans 'ka Rada (Rusyn/Ruthenian American Council) was established at a gathering in Philadelphia on December 8, 1914. By design it was to give equal leadership voice to Subcarpathian and Galician Rusyns, and under the patronage of Bishop Ortynsky, its directors included clerical and lay leaders from the Subcarpathian Rusyn community, especially Father Joseph Hanulya, editor of the United Societies newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian , George Gulanich and Ivan Zeedick of the GCU , and John Branik, president of the United Societies. At its Philadelphia meeting it condemned Russia and advocated for support of the political and cultural union of "Ukrainian (Rusyn)"-inhabited Galicia, Bukovina, and Hungary. 13 This entity ceased to exist with the death of Ortynsky in 1916, but not without drawing ire upon Father Hanulya for his participation. The American-Russian National Defense (ARND) / Narodna Obrana was founded in 1915 in Braddock, Pa. , near Pittsburgh, by Nicholas Pachuta. At the time Pachuta was assistant editor of the ARV, a post he held until 1918, under Michael Hanchin . National Defense styled itself the defender of Rus ' -ness against Magyarism in the Greek Catholic Church, was also critical of Slovakophiles and Ukrainophiles, and picked up members who were recent converts to Orthodoxy in the era of Bishop Stephen Dzubay. In May of 19 18 he met with Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the movement for a new state to be called Czechoslovakia, in Pittsburgh and began a discussion around the fate of Uhro-Rus ' (the Rusyn lands south of the Carpathians, historically part of Hungary). At that time Masaryk disregarded Pachuta's goals because his group "had no following or 12 R. Vl adimir Baumgarten and Joseph Ste fka , The National Slovak Society : 100 Year Histmy. 1890-/990. (Pittsburgh: Nation al Slovak Society, 1990), 76. 13 " Narodnyi z' "izd u Filiadel'fii"," Svoboda (Jersey City, NJ ), 19 December 1914, 2; Myron B. Kuropas, The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884- 1954 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991 ), 134. SLOVAKIA 2021 35 support among the broad masses of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants." 14 National Defense came around to the Czechoslovak option and delivered a memorandum to Masaryk in October endorsing autonomy within a Czechoslovak state. Around that time Pachuta converted to Orthodoxy, and in 1921 he united the National Defense with the American Russian Brotherhood based in C leve land. From 1922 until 1935 he was editor of the Russkij Vistnik newspaper of U ROBA. The League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia was a strictly Russophile political organization that drew most of its participation from individuals who were already active in organizations like ROCMAS and especially RBO. The vast majority of its members were of Galician background, but about 25% of delegates to its congresses were Subcarpathian Rusyns . 15 It held congresses in 19 17, 1918, and 1919 and made proclamations that Carpatho-Rusyn territory, a long with the who le of Galicia and Bukovina, should be part of Russia. The American National Counci l of Uhro-Rusins was founded in July of 1918 in Pittsburgh, with strong support from the United Societies and eventually the GCU . It grew to more than 100 branches, some of which had I 00 or even 200+ members. This was the organization in which the Pittsburgh attorney Gregory Zatkovich rose to leadership, began meetings with Masaryk, and which led to his post as the first governor of Subcarpathian Rus' . In Philadelphia on October 23, 1918, Zatkovich participated in the Mid-European Democratic Union in the presence of Masaryk . At that time Uhro-Rusyns - Rusyns of Hungary - were accepted as a distinct nationa lity, apart from Ukrainians who were already members. The National Counci l met at Scranton, Pa., on November 12, and formulated its final recommendation that Rusyn territory south of the Carpathians, including all of the original Uhro-Rusyn counties, be united in a Czechoslovak state with broad autonomy. The next day, the resolution was presented to Masaryk, who recommended that a plebiscite be held among American Uhro-Rusyns. 14 Joseph Danko, "Plebiscite of Carpath o- Ruthenians in the United States Recommendin g Union of Carpatho-Rutheni a with the Czec hoslovak Republic," Annals of !he Ukrainian Academy of Aris and Sciences, 11 , nos. 1-2 ( 1964-68), 186. 15 Prikarpalskaia Rus • (New York), Vol. I, o. I, October 191 8. 36 SLOVAKIA 2021 The American Uhro-Rusyn Plebiscite of December 1918 The American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, in conjunction with Masaryk's advice to Zatkovich, resolved to conduct a vote in Subcarpathian Rusyn parishes and fraternal lodges to determine their preferred action with respect to the homeland, among the options it had previously agreed to. Of course, they expected that the result would need to support what had already been decided: that Subcarpathian Rusyn territory should join the Czech and Slovak republic. This vote, then, was limited to the National Council's constituency: Subcarpathian-majority Greek Catholic parishes - no Orthodox parishes and no Galician-majority parishes would be involved, even if they had substantial numbers of Subcarpathian Rusyn members; and lodges of the GCU and United Societies only, who were already seen to be inclined toward their leadership's preference for Czechoslovakia. The plebiscite was announced in only one issue of the ARV (Nov. 14, 1918), and commenced almost immediately thereafter. There is no extant evidence that there was campaigning within the communities to select a particular option; certainly there would have been very little time for that. We do have results of the vote, which was published in several installments in the ARV and Prosvita, and which were collected in "Plebiscite ofCarpatho-Ruthenians in the United States Recommending Union of Carpatho-Ruthenia with the Czechoslovak Republic" authored by Joseph Danko in 1968. 16 Option Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic Union with the Ukrainian Republic Total independence Union with Carpatho-Russians Union with Russi a Union with Magyar Land fHungaryl Union with Galicia Total Votes (% of tota l) 732 (66.4%) 310 (28. 1%) 27 (2.5%) 13 ( 1.2%) 10 (0.9%) 9 (0.8%) I (0. 1%) I , 102(/00.0%) Unsurprisingly, the organizers' preferred option won decisively, but not overwhelmingly. Based on the individual vote counts by parish and lodge provided by Danko, I would like to comment on some of 16 Danko, 200. SLOVAKIA 2021 37 the more interesting things I observed. Union with the Czecho-Slovak Republic (rank: I} As we will see, each of the options had some very surprising entities voting for them. This option's supporters included two parishes founded as Greek Catholic but which at the time of the vote had Orthodox pastors: Elkhorn, West Virginia (Father John Gratson) and Elizabeth, New Jersey (Father Gregory Varho l). Not very surprising was a vote by a large, mostly Subcarpathian parish of Rusyns from Spis, Saris and Zemplin Counties (Holy Ghost in Tremont), but whose pastor was Father Hanulya, former editor of the United Societies' first newspaper Rusin - The Ruthenian - who for years as a supporter of Bishop Ortynsky had been attacked by the GCU in the pages of ARV for being a quasi-Ukrainian . Fourteen of the GCU lodges were based at majority-Galician parishes, although some of these lodges were primari ly Subcarpathian in membership. Union with the Ukrainian Republic (rank: 2) Figure 1. A portion of the American Rusyn communities that voted for union of Uhro-Rusyns with the Ukrainian Republic (66% of tota l votes cast). (Source: Danko, 196-198) The following voted for Uni on of Uhro-Rusins with Ukraini an Republic Societies of the Greek Catholic of Rusin Brothe rhoods in the USA 4 6 17 19 24 28 32 50 Mahoney City, Pa. Donmore , Pa. Rendham, Pa. Lansing, Pa . Eckle y , Pa. Glenlien, Pa. Sheppton, Pa. Mahoney Plane, Pa. (Figure I continues) 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 242 267 292 295 298 324 379 390 St. Clair , Pa. Hannastown, Pa. Wilkes-Barre , Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Baggaley, PP a . New Salem, Pa. Kester, Pa. McKees Rocks, Pa. 3 2 2 3 1 6 2 5 38 SLOVAKIA 2021 Uhro-Rusins Greek Catholic United Congregations. I St. Johna SL Johna B. V. M. Bleaed TrinitY B. V. M. B. V. M. SL Michael B. V. M. Holy Ghost L Michael hen Scnnton, Pa. Bridgeport, Conn. New Salem, Pa. New Britain, Conn. Freebnd,PL Whitting, Ind. Ref. &am>lky P.ev. Cbomoc:t Rev.~ 400- 8 500-10 400- 8 Blnghamtoo, N.Y. Taylor, Pa. McKeca Rocb, PL St. Clair Pa. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Rev. Thq2t Rev. Petraaovich Rev. A. Suba Rev. Ribovsk Rev. N. Chopey 550- 7 Lt Lansford, Pa. Rev. Martyak 550- 7 ~udloning, Pa. Ha eton, Pa. Rn. p ch Rev. Brinaky llef. Choarboch 500- 6 500· 6 600-12 600-12 550- 7 Rev. FeiuG !&J- s Overall this was the most surprising result, having the second highest number of votes. Some votes came from additionally surprising places. For example: the parish in New Britain had experienced an ugly split with Galician Ukrainians just eight years before, yet they still had a Galician pastor. The Wilkes-Barre parish ' s pastor was Father Nicholas Chopey, who had a few years before been numbered among the pro-Hungary clergy. The Lansford parish ' s pastor was Father Gabriel Martyak, administrator of the Uhro-Rusyn parishes in the wake of Bishop Ortynsky's death two years before. And the Hazleton parish that voted for this option, pastored by the Lemko priest Father John Fekula? This was actually the Galician parish (St. Michael) that split off from two existing Subcarpathian parishes in the same city. We must wonder how this parish had the opportunity to vote at all. The lodges that voted this way included largely-Galician GCU lodges in Glen Lyon (based at an old mostlyGalician parish) and Rankin (based at a mostly-Subcarpathian parish), 39 SLOVAKIA 2021 five other GC U lodges based at Galician-majority pari shes but with mostl y Subcarpathi an members, and a GCU lodge from Father Martyak's paris h in Lansford whose members were mostl y from Sari s and Zemplin Counti es. The following voted for Tou.l Independence of Uhro-Rusins. Societies of the Greek C. Union. ):: ~~•:· an !Im , a. \ Eynon, Pa. lmon, Pa. ~nton, ra. 2 1 I Gymnastic Branches. I61 11 Scranton, Pa. 67 Mahonoy City, Pa. 1 United Societies of Greek C. Religion I ss K.ingaton, Pa. 1 II 60 Edwardavillc, Pa. 2 j Uhro-Rusin Congregations 11 ¥ M : Holy Gbolt iililUIIII t11 Jcaup, Pa. 1&11 li•1 :Rev. Ivan I= i I Figure 2. The Ameri can Rusyn communities whi ch voted fo r tota l indepe ndence of Uhro-Rusyns (3 % of votes cast). (Danko, 198) Total independence of Uhro- Rusyns (rank: 3) Without any traditi on of self-rule, and without any real advocates fo r thi s pos ition, it is not surpri sing that it rece ived so few votes. It 's notable that not only did the pari sh and a GCU lodge in Jessup, Pennsy lvani a, contribute a number of the votes fo r thi s option, but two additional GC U lodges that did , in Eynon , Pennsyl va ni a, were a ffili ated wi th the Jessup pari sh as we ll. Jessup a lso had a large RBO lodge, but it is unlike ly that independence would have been the ir preference. 40 SLOVAKIA 2021 Union with Carpatho-Russians (i.e., Galicians, Bukovinians, UhroRusyns) (rank: 4) This position was represented among American Carpatho-Rusyns mainly by the League for the Liberation of Carpatho-Russia, although evidently few Subcarpathian Rusyns belonged to that organization, and to some extent originally by the American-Russian National Defense. The few votes for this option came mainly from Gary, Indiana 's GCU Lodge 469 and its Greek Catholic parish, which was primarily of Subcarpathian origin (in its western counties that would be incorporated into Slovakia) although it is not clear to this author why that would have been their choice. Union with Russia (rank: 5) The FolJowing voted for Union with Russia Greek Catholic Union. 550 Olyphant, Pa. 1 Gymnastic Branch 121 Jerome, Pa. I Uhro-Rusin Congregations a. V. M. Mahoooy City, Pa. lln. I. lubck 400- a Figure 3. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Russia (I % of votes cast). (Danko. 199) Among the votes for this option were GCU Lodge 530 in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, mostly Lemko in membership and based at a Galician-majority parish, and perhaps most curious of all , St. Mary 's Greek Catholi c Church in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, whose pastor was the noted Rusyn-language author and cultural patriot Father Emil Kubek. Kubek was also part of the leadership of the American I 41 SLOVAKIA 2021 National Council, which was not supportive of union with Russia at all. While he was not a Russophile, his relative lack of involvement with the GCU (and perhaps due to the RBO being founded in his parish) may have encouraged him to advocate for this option . Or more likely the decisive factor was the RBO's founding president, John Zincak Smith, also being the president of St. Mary's parish. Union with Magyar land (i.e., Hungary) (rank: 6) The Following voted for Union of Uhro-Rwins with Magyar Land Greek Catholic Union. 50 2 181 Clevdand, Ohio Clndand, Ohio Uhro-Rusin Congregations. St. John'• , ClcYeland, Ohio llev. Ballog soo- 6 I Figure 4. The American Rusyn communities which voted for union ofUhroRusyns with Hungary (I % of votes cast). (Danko, 199) Even though many of the Subcarpathian Greek Catholic clergy in the U.S. were Magyarized (if not outright Magyarone), it doesn't seem that any attempt there may have been on their part to influence their parishioners to vote for this option was successful. The ARV denounced Hungary's policy toward its ethnic minorities for years in the lead up to the war. Despite Hungary's liberalized ethnic minority policy that began in 1915, inclination toward Hungary from American Rusyns seems to have changed little. Two GCU lodges voted for this option, but most striking is that six votes came from St. John's Church in Cleveland - not the Rusyn one that in 1918 had hired an Orthodox priest as its pastor - but the Magyar parish, pastored by Father Michael Balogh. This was the only ethnic-Hungarian parish to vote, and it's unlikely that Zatkovich and the American National Council had intended the plebiscite to include the Magyar parishes. (It's possible that they did, we just have no evidence on either side to say for sure.) Union with Galicia (rank: 7) Given the still substantial portion of the GCU's membership either 42 SLOVAKIA 2021 from Galicia or belonging to lodges based at Galician-majority parishes, we could have expected more votes for this option than were returned. However, a number of GCU lodges that were mostly or entirely Galician in membership (e.g., McKeesport Lodge 782, Wilmerding, Pa. , Lodges 348 and 360) - and based at Galician parishes - did not vote. It must be underscored that the plebiscite was not truly representative of the range of religious congregations and fraternal lodges found in the American Carpatho-Rusyn community, not even when speaking exclusively of those from Subcarpathia - the "Uhro-Rusyns." The Orthodox (except for two parishes which inexplicably did vote) were wholly unrepresented, and the significant fraternals RBO, ROCMAS , and fledgling UROBA were likewise ignored. Clearly it was meant to produce the additional justification Zatkovich needed to present the Scranton resolution to the Paris Peace Conference. 17 Understandably alarmed by this development, the activist Ukrainian American community opposed what they had hoped would be an outcome supporting their goal to unite so-called Ukrainian-Ruthenian ethnographic territory in a Ukrainian state. In so doing, they provided what seems to be the only eyewitness account of how the plebiscite was conducted in a Rusyn parish. Here writes a Ukrainian from Bridgeport, Conn .: Our Hungarian brother Rusyns want to unite Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine. On December 8 of this year, a parish meeting was held in Bridgeport, Conn. , right after the Divine Liturgy, in the parish school. The meeting was very interesting for every Ukrainian, because our brother Uhro-Rusyns decided on the fate of our and their brothers across the sea. Local speakers and Father Orest Cornjak [Chornock], local pastor, spoke. The meeting was convened for the purpose of deciding where Hungarian Rus' shou ld belong: whether to Ukraine or to the Czecho-Slovak state. Father Orest Cornjak stated his preference, that he would vote to belong to his brothers, that is, to the Ukrainians, rather than to the Czecho-Slovaks . After much discussion , it turned out that the Uhro-Rusyn 17 Victor S. Mamatey, "The Slovaks and Carpatho-Ruthenians," in Joseph F. O'Grady, ed .. The Immigrants· Influence on Wilson's Peace Policies (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967), 245-246. SLOVAKIA 2021 43 leaders wanted to lead the Uhro-Rusyns to the Czecho-Slovaks, without questioning the Uhro-Rusyn people. And again the speakers protested against the "American National Council of UhroRusins" in America that no one has elected; its members of that Council are self-appointed leaders, that they have chosen themselves and have no right to speak in the name of the Uhro-Rusyn people, and further that they proposed an amendment so as not to vote either for Ukraine or against, nor to take a position against the Czecho-Slovak state, and so let it be as Uhro-Rusyns will decide in the old country. They also complained to the Ukrainians that at the founding of the " Mid-European Union" at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., they had to say that the Uhro-Rusyns are "a different people" from the Ukrainians, and thus the Ukrainians do not want to accept the UhroRusyns as an equal among equals and so for that reason will not vote in that way. When people were already wanting to leave, Mr. Ivan Boyko, head of the Ukrainian Athletic Association (Sich) in America, while asking forgiveness for the slurs that were committed by Ukrainians, and explaining that the Uhro-Rusyns had already decided at the founding council meetings in L'viv that Hungarian Rus ' should belong to Ukraine together with Galicia and Bukovina, said he did not see the reasons why the Uhro-Rusyns should not vote for the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine. He laid out what benefits the Uhro-Rusyns would have in a Ukrainian state, and what benefits they would have from the Czecho-Slovaks .. .. We Ukrainians, said Mr. Bojko, can never agree that our Hungarian brothers will be in the Czecho-Slovak state. [... ] It should be noted that the audience very intently listened to Mr. Bojko and took his every word to heart. After the speech the audience rewarded him with applause when the other speakers received no applause. Here Mr. Bojko did a great service to the Ukrainian people by proclaiming this speech to the Hungarian brothers, because then now the entire hall of people began to speak differently about it after the speech, because it was moved to vote by secret ballot, about where Hungarian Rus' should belong: whether to Ukraine, or to the Czecho-Slovak state, and another motion, to vote by roll call , so that you know who is against your brothers (Ukrainians). Father Comjak led by saying: Who is for 44 SLOVAKIA 2021 uniting Hungarian Rus' with Ukraine? It was decided unanimously on the joining of Hungarian Rus' to Ukraine, and then came the second ballot: Who is for uniting Hungarian Rus' with the Czecho-Slovaks? For this union with the Czecho-Slovaks there was only one vote. So, evidently, the Uhro-Rusyns want to unite with Ukraine. The statement made in Philadelphia by Misters M. Sichynsky and N. Ceglinsky, recognizing the Uhro-Rusyns as a separate nationality, with their representative as Mr. Zatkovich in the "MidEuropean Union," should be retracted for the good of the Ukrainian people and the Uhro-Rusyns . Instead, let them declare that the Uhro-Rusyns are our brothers by blood and by faith , and we can never agree that a second nationality would rule over our Hungarian brothers, even if it were Czecho-Slovakia. In Bridgeport, Conn ., Uhro-Rusyns do not recognize the "American National Council of Uhro-Rusins" because their people did not select them , and that self-styled Counci l has no right to push them into a Czecho-Slovak state, because the Uhro-Rusyn brothers want to unite Hungarian Rus ' with Ukraine. Glory to them for this! 18 The Ukrainian National Association's newspaper Svoboda reported on a Ukrainian National Congress that took place in January 1919. This congress included speakers on the situation in the Subcarpath ian Rusyn community in the U.S. and its recent Scranton resolution and fol low-on plebiscite. Father Kubek , editor of the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik [this is an error, he was not] was supposed to speak, but at the last moment he informed that he was not able to do so. His place was taken by a Galician priest, Father Vasyl' Merenkiv, who said, among other things: "In recent days I was in several Uhro-Rusyn parishes and spoke with several Uhro-Rusyn priest-leaders . We spoke about the idea of uniting Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine . I can assure the esteemed delegates that they are all committed to joining Uhro-Rus ' with Ukraine more so than with Czec hoslovak ia. But still, I noticed that American Uhro-Rusyns are sti ll wavering." Mr. Ivan Hajovyc (of Maramoros), a delegate from the Chicago Uhro-Rusyns, was called to speak. He revealed his joy that he has an 18 "Svobidna vo lia uhors' kykh Ru syniv," Svoboda, 14 December 19 I 8, 2. SLOVAKIA 2021 45 opportunity to speak to so many people who are interested in the fate of Uhro-Rusyns. He talked about the oppression that Uhro-Rusyns suffered from the Magyars. " We, Hungarian Ukrainians," said Mr. Hajovyc, "stand body and soul for the unity of Ukraine.We want to join with Ukraine! We are protesting against the plebiscite conducted among American UhroRusyn s, which was set up for the sake of uniting Uhro-Rus' with Czechoslovakia. Hungarian Ukrainians want to be united with Ukraine. We do not know what Czechoslovakia is and who CzechoSlovaks are. We never want to hear anything about joining them." Mr. Ivan Hundjak (a Galician) argued using statistics that the plebiscite initiated by Masaryk among American Uhro-Rusyns was conducted in a deceptive manner. Finally Mr. Ivan Skakandij, an Uhro-Rusyn cantor-teacher and delegate from Nesquehoning, Pa . was called to speak He regretted that in such an important moment Hungarian Ukrainians in America have not yet all been awakened to a life of national consciousness. " It is the fault of the Uhro-Rusyn clergy, who in the old country were led around by the Magyars and now by the Czechoslovaks. But nationally conscious Hungarian Ukrainians in America want to unite with Ukraine. We are just now awakening to life and there is hope that in a short time we will all be awakened." One speaker (Father Merenkiv) said " Hungarian Ukrainians in America are still waking up, but remember, that as we wake up , Masaryk will do nothing to help." 19 My observations about the results, it turns out, while I arrived at them independently, were noted to some extent already in 1919 in an article in the Ukrainian press. This is the speech by Ivan Hundjak (mentioned previously) in which he analyzed the resu lts and pointed out, among other criticisms, that if a person happened to be a member of a GCU lodge and the United Societies lodge in the same place, and the local Subcarpathian Greek Catholic parish, conceivably that person could vote up to three times. He noted as well (as Danko did) that participation among those eligible to vote was fairly low. He asserted that had these irregularities been taken into account, the leading result 19 "Z narodnohu z'izdu," Svoboda, 18 January 19 19, 2. 46 SLOVAKIA 2021 probably would have been for union with Ukraine. I would counter that had there been time, or the will, to more inclusively offer the vote to all American Subcarpathian Rusyn institutions, and not just the ones affiliated with the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, the results may indeed have been different, but more likely toward union with Russia, as impractical as that might have been. Reception of Czechoslovakia in the Rusyn American Community In May of 19 I 9, the cornerstone was laid in Homestead, Pennsylvania, for the Rusin Peoples Home. This event, under the patronage of the American National Council of Uhro-Rusins, occurred just days before the National Counci l in Uzhorod, Subcarpathian Rus ', would accept the American Rusyns ' proposal to unite with Czechoslovakia. The commemorative booklet for this event 20 prominently featured a page with the American, Czechoslovak, and "Rusin" flags entwined, with the slogan "Old Glory Has Made This Federation (Czech-SlovakRusin) Possible." The pages following showed photographs of Zatkovich signing the declaration of the Mid-European Nationalities and Masaryk reading the declaration at a public manifestation in Philadelphia. The book ' s last page is a map showing Europe ' s ethnic groups within the new postwar borders, with Czechoslovakia labeled "Czechoslovaks" and to its east, "Uhro-Rusinia." It's not clear whether UhroRusinia is meant to be depicted as part of Czechoslovakia or not. Whatever the interpretation, this is probably the lone celebratory publication of American Rusyns to mark the decision to join the Czechoslovak Republic. A delegation of American Rusyn gymnasts affiliated with the GCU Sokol division travelled to Prague in the summer of 1920 to participate in a Pan-Slavic Gymnastics exhibition. As part of the trip they also visited Subcarpathian Rus ' and had an audience with Governor Zatkovich. One member of the delegation wrote, " In Prague we were 20 Souvenir Issued by the Rusin Peoples Home, Inc. on the Occasion of the Dedication ofthe Corner-Stone I Pamiatnik izdan ko,poratsieiu Russkii Narodny i Dom iz sluchai posviashcheniia kraeugol 'nago kamen 'ia. Homestead. Pa .. I 9 I 9 (Homestead, Pa., 19 19). SLOVAKIA 2021 47 warmly welcomed by the Czechs and everything we saw in Prague and the way we were treated , we enjoyed ... " oi...o OLO ..... .. , . . MAO• T .. , . rcDll:.. 4Tt0N ie&&CW·~YAK "v.lNI ~ . . . • 1..• Figure 5. Page from the commemorative booklet for the cornerstone laying ofthe Rusin Peoples Home in Homestead, Pa., May 1919. Another wrote, " With thanks to God , with our appearance at the Pan-Slavic Sokol Meet in Prague, we made a mark in the history of our Sokol Branch which wi ll be permanent proof that we accomplished our mission , that we entered into the order of the Czechoslovak Sokol movement. . . We also left a lasting impression on the youth of Subcarpathian Rus ' ." The trip was promoted in the pages of ARV and chronicled fully in the 1921 almanac of the Sokol division. 2 1 It wou ld not be long before frustration over the lack of autonomy promised Subcarpathian Rus' by Masaryk would boil over in the American Carpatho-Rusyn press, especially when Zatkovich resigned in 1921 , and would continue at least until the late 1920s among Greek Catholics. The GCU printed a number of publications critical of Czechoslovak policy: Zatkovich's Otkrytie-Expose by vseho g ubernatora Podkarpatskoj Rus i, o Podkarpatskoj Rusi ( 1921 ), Wilson's Prin21 C heryl We ller Beck et al. , Opportuni~v Realized: The Greek Catholic Union 's First One Hundred Years, / 892-1992. (Beaver, Pa.: Gree k Catholic Uni on o f the U.S.A. , 1994), 75 . 48 SLOVAKIA 2021 ciples in Czechoslovak Practice: The Situation of the Carpatho-Russian People Under the Czech Yoke ( 1929) and Beskid's Karpatorusskaja pravda ( 1932). They would also lead a National Congress of Rusins in Pittsburgh in November 1922, which issued a memorandum to Prague condemning their policy toward Subcarpathian Rus '. American Rusyns in the Russian Orthodox Church and others of Russophile orientation would take up the opposition to Czechoslovak policy toward Subcarpathian Rus' through the 1930s. 22 I did not find any evidence - written or photographic - in Carpatho-Rusyn communities or parishes of widespread adoption of Czechoslovakia as a symbolic "homeland." There is certain ly no oral folklore around portraits of Masaryk (or Zatkovich, for that matter) being hung in parish halls as there is of portraits of Maria Theresa and Franz Josef from the early immigration. Lasting Impressions on Rusyn Americans of a Czechoslovak "Homeland" A list on the Wikipedia entry for Czech Americans of "The top 50 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Czech ancestry" 23 (based on the 2000 U.S . census) contains mostly predictable results - locations in North Dakota, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin , et al. An accompanying list, " U.S. communities with the most residents born in the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia)," however, contains a curious entry: tied for number IO was the little town of Colver, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles north of Johnstown in the west central part of the state. Colver, a former coal mining company town , had just a few primary ethnic groups : among these were Slovaks and Carpatho-Rusyns. It may we ll have sti ll had a few residents in 2000 who were born in the former Czechos lovakia. It is not clear that these results came from responses declaring their birthplace as "Czech Republic" or "Czechoslovakia," or either, but surely this population in Colver, Pennsylvania, was not ethnic Czechs. 22 Magocsi, Our People, 88-89. "Czech Americans", https ://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech Americans. Accessed December I, 201 8. 23 SLOVAKIA 2021 49 The U.S. Census Bureau statistics for ancestry 24 (estimated from its 20 I 3 American Community Survey) show that Pennsylvania, historically the state with the largest number of Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak immigrants, had more than 52,142 residents with Czech ancestry, or 0.3% of Pennsylvania residents. This is much less than those who indicated Slovak or Ukrainian ancestry, many of which are likely of Carpatho-Rusyn background (or the completely unreali stic 193 ,000 with "Russian" ancestry), but still far higher than the hi storically low Czech settlement of the state would imply. In addition, "Czechoslovak ian" ancestry was estimated at 22,904, which could conceivably include any of Czech, Slovak, or Carpatho-Rusyn-descended individuals, although the much lower national consciousness of CarpathoRusyn Americans - reflected by the miniscule estimated 2,050 of that background - would lead one to expect most of those "Czechoslovak" individuals to have Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. That many Carpatho-Rusyn Americans of any particular geographic background in Carpathian Rus ' still exhibit confusion about their ethnic and geographical origins is not news to anyone. But it may be that Subcarpathian Rus ' belonging for 20 years to Czechoslovakia created a lingering geographic attachment to the idea of "Czechoslovakia" as the ancestral land of American Carpatho-Rusyns. Consider these newspaper clippings, maybe the most extreme examples of this phenomenon I've encountered. A perhaps unintended corollary to this phenomenon is the everincreasing use of genealogy websites where obituaries, gravestones, and other data are collected; many of the individuals - Carpatho-Rusyns and others - whose ge nealogical data is found on these sites have had their birthplace, which was probably entered by their descendant researcher as "Czechoslovakia," transposed by the site into "Czech Republic," further muddling Carpatho-Rusyn identity by placing Czechoslovak natives into the wrong modem-day country. Thus the main legacy of Carpatho-Rusyns' Czechoslovak homeland may well be their descendants eventually needing to educate themselves about 24 U.S. Census Bureau, Total Ancestry Reported: Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported, 2013 American Community Survey I- Year Estimates. https :// factfinder.census.gov/ faces/tableservices/ jsf/pages/productview.xhtml ?pid=ACS 13 I YR B04003&prodType=table. Accessed I December 2018. 50 SLOVAKIA 2021 the fact that Subcarpathian Rus ' was indeed part of Czechoslovakia and is not the modem day Czechia, nor Slovakia, for that matter. rites _____§s:,vtces for Mary - • 93, of 1220 Valley Road, Duncott, who died Friday morning at Pottsville Hospital, will be held at 9 :15 a.m. Tuesday !rom Dutcavich Funeral Home, Minersville. Further services will be held at 10 a .m . in Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville . The Very Rev. Michael Hatrak will officiate. Interment will be in the parish cemetery, Branch Township. Born public, sh late Metro and Sophie She came to the United States as a child, resided in the Heckscherville and Duncott areas and attended Heckscherville schools. She was a member of Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Minersville, and was active in numerous church functions for many years. Figure 6. 1998 obituary of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant born in Lochovo, Bereg County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was " born in Lockaway, Czech Republic In any case, on this centennial of the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic, we can happily remember Mamatey's remark about the significance of American Carpatho-Rusyns' activities around this creation : "while the Slovak immigration in the United States affected Wilson's peace policies only indirectly ... the Carpatho-Ruthenian immigrants did so directly." 25 25 Mamatey, 249. SLOVAKIA 2021 MARI( 51 R0CMR8ISlalf Pholo Woman celebrates turning 103 Mary 11111111 • l'Nident at York Terrace, Pottsville, wavee to ad- =:~==bi~ le now the Cziech Republ 1891, ahe larecenUy. • member of Sa. Born In Pa,1 ; lie Church, Mlnersvllle, and atlll enjoya muak:al and cooking actlvltlea at York Terrace. 7. 200 I news article of a birthday celebration of a Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant centenarian born in Cyganovci , Uz County, now in the Zakarpatska Oblast of Ukraine, which states she was "born in what is now the Czech Republic." Figure 52 SLOVAKIA 2021 "UIIRO . RUSINIA, PROPOSED THIUD STATE OF TUE CZl',()JJO!!LO'\"AK REPUBLIC " • 0 ...... ,,.....,....-_-...):/ ~ ( • • • ,. 1'14"-t.~ Figure 8. Map prepared in 1918 by Gregory Zatkovich depicting the proposed future state of "Uhro-Rusinia" within a federal Czechoslovakia, in which all Rusyn-inhabited lands on the southern slopes of the Carpathians were to be included. (Archive of Paul R. Magocsi , used with permission)  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 Envisioning a Homeland: Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Description An account of the resource Richard D. Custer Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 27-52 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Custer, Richard D. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/64c7484d3942d7f02a6a816065018048.pdf 08cc45405d9a6b4a5edd5b060d9e8483 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 53 RECONSIDERING SLOVAK-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT: THOMAS BELL'S OUT OF THIS FURNACE IN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT Frederick Hale Introduction If any work of fiction deserves to be called " the great SlovakAmerican historical novel ," it is undoubtedly Thomas Bell 's Out of This Furnace. To be sure, the competition is nearly non-existent. 1 Nevertheless, since its initial publication in 1941 , thi s volume of more than 400 pages has offered readers a hi ghly readable and insightful view of immigrant laborers and their descendants, chiefly in the steel mill town s of western Pennsylvania where many Slovaks toiled. Their presence became woven into the multicolored ethni c fabric of that once-booming region. Though for many upward social mobility came at a snai l's pace, organized community li fe began early and remained vibrant, and the members of the group contributed mightily to the prosperity of the cities in which they sacrificed seemingly endless hours on the a ltars of an economy of wh ich they were far more the victims than the lords. Beg inning, apparently, as economically virtually powerless and thus wi lling to accept their su bservient lot in life, many gradua lly gained a bolder spirit through the labor movements in which they participated . In tandem with their inevitable assim ilation, Slovak-Americans eventuall y gained a greater voice in the direction of their working lives. These interrelated matters form much of the thematic warp and woof of Bell 's much-lauded novel , which traces three generations through their tribul ations to a more ass imilated 1 Michael ovak 's quasi-autobiogra phical The Tiber Was S ilver ( 1961) failed to make a perceptible splash in the waters of American literature, and hi s Naked I l eave ( 1970), whi ch was more widely rev iewed, was a lso criticall y interpreted as a fictional ized mirror of hi s transition from Roman Catho li c se minarian to journalist. These intensely personal works by a prominent Slovak-American inte llectua l whose life began in Jo hn stown , Pennsylvania, in 1933 are not w itho ut arti stic merit , but th ey belo ng to a sub-genre o f ficti o n quite different from Be ll 's realistic po rtraya l of th e ethni c g roup's hi story in th e late nin eteenth and ea rl y twenti eth centuri es. �54 SLOVAKIA 2021 status and to higher rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Mu tat is mutandis, the story it tells echoes that of numerous other immigrant groups in urban America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Conceivably the eventual upward mobility-engendered in part by the labor movement- underlay the translation of this work into Slovak and its publication in 1949 in Czechoslovakia, when that country was to a great degree under the hegemony of the Soviet Union during the chilliest days of the Cold War. Furthermore, owing to its pedagogical value for teaching American immigration and labor hi story, in 1976 the University of Pittsburgh reprinted Out of This Furnace in response to a proposal by Professor David P. Demarest of Carnegie Mellon University. It fitted this social activist's converging interests in workingclass literature and labor history hand-in-glove. The relative popularity of the book led to a fiftieth anniversary edition in 1991. Bell illuminated many facets of Slovak-American working-class life and did not hesitate to include in his narrati ve several less savory dimensions of it that less candid writers might have chosen to minimize or ignore entirely in the interests of presenting palatable impressions of their respective ethnic groups. As Professor David J. Goldberg noted in 20 IO when advocating the assignment of Out of This Furnace to university students, " Men get drunk in saloons. Weddings and funerals are occasions for arguments." 2 A Limited Tradition of Scholarly Consideration Out of This Furnace has been neither the beneficiary nor the victim of extensive scholarly criticism, but it has not been completely ignored. In hi s study of American writers of the 1930s, especially those on the political Left, Leo Gurko devoted a few paragraphs to Bell ' s authorship and commented on this novel. However, Gurko did not evince adequate familiarity with this novelist's oeuvre. He judged that the ideological positions taken by Bell's characters "end with trade-unionism and anti-fascism," a myopic observation that overlooks the central character in All Brides Are Beautiful. Turning specifically to the hi storical span of Out o_fThis Furnace, Gurko thought that 2 David J. Goldberg, "Thomas Bell's 0111 o_(This Furnace: An Evaluation and an Appreciation," Journal of American Ethnic History, XXIX, no. 2 (Winter 2010), p. 664 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 55 it covered two generations of Slovak-Americans, when in fact it dealt with three. 3 In 1975, i.e. a year before its republication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, John F. Berko contributed an article about Bell as a novelist to the journal Slovak Studies but devoted only one page to this particular novel. 4 Furthermore, after encouraging its republication Demarest wrote a moderately detailed Afterword in which he provided useful information without dissecting the text. The eminent historian of Slovak immigrants in North America Marian Mark Stolarik has credited Bell with describing Slovak-American life "very we ll" but lamented that he had "completely ignored the religiosity" of this ethnic group. 5 Stolarik's criticism at this point dovetails neatly with what he and other historians have repeatedly stated about the enthusiasm of Slovak-Americans for ecclesiastical life. In his article " Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," for example, published in the Slovak League of America's celebratory bicentennial volume in 1978, Daniel F. Tanzone could declare without reserve that "the most di stinctive characteristic of the Slovaks is their deep and abiding faith in God." The zeal they evinced in Central Europe, he emphasized, became transatlantic as immigrants from Slovakia " made great effort to hear the word of God preached to them in their native Slovak tongue." 6 The linkage between social and religious life has also been highlighted in the pertinent historiography. As Stolarik explained in the 1980s, upon settling in the United States Slovaks typically initiated this by founding "fraternal-benefit" societies to provide emotional and economic safety nets. These lodges usually reflected the discrete religious affiliations of individuals within the larger group and were identifiable as de facto Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. From the religious cohesion of such local societies formal , 3 Leo Gurko, The Angty Decade (New York : Dodd, Mead and Company, 1947), 66-9. John F. Berko, "Thomas Bell ( 1903- 196 1) Slovak-Ameri can Novelist," Slovak S1udies, XV ( 1975), 143-58. 5 M. Mark Stolarik to Frederick Hale, 14 November 20 17 (electronic correspondence) . 6 Daniel F. Tanzone, "Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," in Slovaks in America: A Bicenlennial S!udy (Middletown, Pennsylvani a: The Slovak League of America, 1978), 57 . 4 �56 SLOVAKIA 2021 distinctly Slovak parishes sprang, often after a period of worshiping with, for example, Polish fellow immigrants.7 In his history of three generations of Slovak-Americans in the steel mill town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from the 1880s until the 1970s, Stolarik related in some detail how they were divided into three religious communities, chiefly Roman Catholic but also Greek Catholic and Lutheran . Church life among many of these people appears to have been vibrant, despite chronic financial hardship that, for example, protracted the amortization of mortgages. Church edifices began to appear at a very early stage. 8 He was thus not in doubt that " religion played a central role in the life of Bethlehem Slovaks."9 Of particular relevance to Out of This Furnace, Stolarik argued that on a national basis the "overwhelming loyalty" of Slovak-Americans to their religious life helped to immunize them from an early stage of their history to socialist movements which were drawing support from many other working-class immigrants well before the end of the nineteenth century. 10 More than two decades later, Stolarik published what may be the most up-to-date, albeit still brief, scholarly consideration of SlovakAmerican religious life. Writing in The Catholic Historical Review, he emphasized why the immigrants in question were divided into four denominations and how they adjusted to ecclesiastical circumstances in the United States of America and Canada, particularly the creation of specific ethnic parishes. Stolarik did not, however, deal with such matters as the non-affiliation of individuals with churches, anticlericalism, and hostility to or disagreement with religion as such. He judiciously acknowledged that much research remained to be done before historians could paint anything approaching a comprehensive portrait of the spiritual life of Slovak-Americans generally. 11 7 Marian Mark Stolarik , Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 18701918 (New York: AMS Press, Inc ., 1989), 82-3 . 8 M. Mark Stolarik, Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera/ions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. 1880-/9 76 (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1985), 44-62. 44. 10 Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization, 8 1. 11 M. Mark Stolarik, " Slovak Immigrants Come to Term s with Reli g ious Diversity in North America," The Catholic Historical Review, XCVI , no. I (January 20 I 0): 5684. 9 Ibid ., �SLOVAKIA 2021 57 The publication in 2012 of his lengthy Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America (/ 870-2010) gave Stolarik an opportunity to touch on aspects of Slovak immigrants ' religious life in North America. His seventh chapter, "Slovak Marxists Disagree" dealt with what he acknowledged were the "few Marxists" among the Slovaks in the United States and Canada. This minuscule segment established mutual benefit societies which competed on a minor scale with the churches for the loyalty of the immigrants and their descendants but, as Stolarik emphasized, "their number remained small." 12 He briefly traced a waning of the socialists ' initially strident criticism ofreligious life and concluded that by the 1940s the verbal warfare had ceased. 13 The di sagreements to which the chapter' s title refers were largely those among the socialists themselves, especially with regard to political developments in their homeland, not to disputes between these men of the left and the ecclesiastical traditions they had left behind. The empirically challenging question of the scope of general SlovakAmerican indifference to and non-participation in formal religious life thus remained essentially unanswered. Regarding participation in secular campaigns to improve working conditions in industrial America, it is difficult to ascertain how many of these newcomers and their descendants supported the more inclusive labor movement, which in the USA was only partly socialist. However, it is known that Bell himself was a man of the Left, albeit not in a consistently outspoken way. How unrepresentative of SlovakAmericans he was in that regard is an interesting question, though one that necessarily lies beyond the scope of the present article. At any rate, in Out o_f This Furnace Bell presented the labor movement in a positive manner and highlighted the participation of at least a small number of Slovak-Americans in it. This is probably significant to an understanding of the dispersed treatment of religion in this fictional construction. 12 M. Mark Stolarik, Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America ( / 87020 10) (Bern : Peter Lang AG, Internati onal Academi c Publishers, 201 2), p. 205. 13 Stolarik, Wh ere Is My Home?, pp. 2 12-2 13. �58 SLOVAKIA 2021 A Little-known Literary A rtist Bell ' s earl y li fe endowed him with an intimate know ledge of hi s subj ect. His parents were fro m the village of Ni zny Tvarozec in the Bardejov d istri ct of the Presov reg ion of northwestern Slovaki a. He was born in the mill tow n of Braddock, Penn sylvani a, j ust east of Pi ttsburgh, in 1903 . 14 That small c ity had a popul ati on of 15,654 in 1900, a fig ure whi ch rose to sli ghtly over 20,000 two decades later before a persistent dec line reduced it to a poverty-stri cken village in the late twentieth century. His origi nal name was Ada lbert Thomas Belejcak, a cu mbersome moniker whi ch he never used during hi s career as a nove li st. Leav ing schoo l as an ado lescent, he worked loca ll y from age fifteen as an electri c ian' s apprenti ce but in 1922 re located to New York and was vari ously empl oyed fo r approximate ly a decade as a merchant sea man, boo kstore clerk , and mechani c. Bell 's first nove l, The Breed of Bas il, appeared in 1930, and from 1933 onward he was a fu ll -time writer, th ough onl y fi ve of hi s nove ls were issued. Hi s All Brides Are Beautiful was the bas is of a motion picture starrin g Joa n Fonta ine and Mark Stevens, and Till! Come Back to You was dramati zed and produced on Broadway by Jed Harri s. In other noteworthy d imensions of his career w ith the pen, Be ll contri buted short stori es to such magazi nes as McCall 's and Ladies ' Home J ournal, and eventuall y worked as a Holl ywood screenwriter. After mov ing to Cali fo rni a in 1955 , he continued to write sporadi ca ll y whil e operating the East Side Gift and Stati onery Shop in Santa Cruz. His hea lth deteri orated in the late 1950s, and he di ed of cancer in 196 1. The fun era l was held in a mortuary chapel rather than a church, and Bell 's ashes were interred at the crematory of the Independent Order of Odd Fell ows . 15 The few sources of readil y ava il able info rmation about hi s li fe do not suggest th at he had any ex perience in Slovaki a, and nothin g in Out of This Furnace indi cates that he had noteworthy know ledge of that coun try apart fro m what may have been handed down ora ll y from hi s fo rebears. Bell appears to have reli ed almost exc lusive ly on ora l traditi on and memories of hi s childhood in western Penn sy lvani a when craftin g thi s nove l. 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wikiff homas_ Bell_(nove list). Accessed 2 January 2020. For SC ovelist T homas Bell Set," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 17 January I 96 1, p. 12. 15 " Servi ces �SLOVAKIA 2021 59 Ideologically, Bell stood unabashedly on the left flank of the American political spectrum. This comes to the fore more vividly in his credible proletarian novel of 1936, All Brides Are Beautiful, which was the basis of the motion picture From This Day Forward, which premiered in 1946. Set in New York during the Depression of the 1930s, its principal protagonist is an Irish-American named Peter Cummings who, like many of his fellow citizens, suffers from underemployment and discrimination in the labor market. He reads a new book of British origin, The Nature of Capitalist Crisis, by John Strachey, a Labour Party politician who, despite his bourgeois origins (his father edited the Conservative-supporting periodical The Spectator) and privileged education at Eton College and the University of Oxford , was a communist sympathizer before turning against Communism in 1940. The narrative is peppered with references to inter alia the Workers Bookshop and the newspaper Daily Worker, published in New York by the Communist Party of the United States of America. In response to a query by another character, Cummings confirms his suspected political sympathies but qualifies this by assuring her, "I ' m not a very good Communist." 16 In the general scholarly literature about American literature (in which works by many individuals about immigrant groups are relatively well represented), Bell remains almost completely invisible. Never did an article about him appear in the hundreds of volumes in the nearly exhaustive reference work Contemporary Authors. As of 2020, the seemingly very inclusive Dictionary of Literary Biography, well over 300 volumes strong, has not included an essay about Bell. Rarely is he even mentioned in general surveys of the wider subject. Anyone searching for information about this fairly productive writer' s life and oeuvre will be fortunate to reap even a meager harvest of information . Contemporary reviews of his novels are a partial exception to this generalization, but even they are not particularly abundant. Out of This Furnace is a constructed family epic, and not even the later stages of the saga, which overlap with its author' s life, are quite autobiographical. In his Afterword in the 1976 edition, Demarest relied heavily on information gleaned from Bell's younger brother, 16 Thomas Bell , All Brides Are Beautiful (Boston: Linle, Brown, and Company, 1936), 21 6. �60 SLOVAKIA 2021 Anthony, to highlight certain fictional departures from the ostensible facts of the Belejcak family history . Plot Summary Out of This Furnace is structured in four parts. The first deals principally with George (or "Djuro") Kracha, who leaves his Slovak peasant life (and, temporarily, his young and pregnant wife in the care of his mother) in the autumn of 1881. After giving birth to a son a few months later, she joins him in Pennsylvania. They eke out a basic existence as George finds employment in a steel mill but his upward mobility is limited to operating a temporarily profitable butcher shop. There is no moral progression in this character. After his wife dies, he marries a fellow Slovak who emigrated simultaneous ly with him, but this frequently inebriated and cognitively unimpressive man is jailed for beating her. The second and third parts relate in much detail the lives of his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Mike Dobrejcak. These members of the second-generation toil arduously but receive scant reward for their labors. However, they are confident that their son, Dobie, can enjoy a materially better life than they have, a conviction this quite Americanized lad shares. He fulfills their expectations to a great degree. Having received several years' schooling, he speaks Eng li sh fluently and uses his rhetorical talent to advocate workers ' rights. In the fourth part, Dobie also toils in mills but plays a crucial role in the unionization of the labor force regionally and ventures to Washington to participate in labor negotiations. To a vastly greater degree than his immigrant grandfather, Dobie embodies an altrui stic spirit. He is a considerate husband and parent who is concerned not merely about his own welfare but a lso that of his descendants and of the working class in general. All in all , the saga of this family through three generations relates much about the initially glacial but gradual and inconsistent rise of Slovak-Americans during decades when the spoils of the labor and entrepreneurial spirit that transformed the United States into a massive industrial power were so unevenly distributed. In doing so, Bell's novel sheds much light on social relationships within the ethnic group, the partial retention of ethnic culture, and other related matters. �SLOVAKIA 2021 61 A Miscellany of Religious Motifs The narrative does not deal in nearly as much detail about the reli gious life of Slovak-Americans as historians of Christianity might wi sh. This theme plays second or third fiddle in an otherwise fairly well-deve loped fictional orchestration of immigrant hi story. How much Bell knew about that aspect of his family's story which forms the core of the construction is difficult to assess. According to his brother Anthony, who provided Demarest with information about the clan, their father was a very active layman " in the church and related organizations" whose involvement in them took him to meetings throughout Pennsylvania and in Ohio. 17 In one of the most didactic sections of Part Two, the narrator genera li zes about the characteristics of the ethnic group. " In the o ld country the Slovaks had been an oppressed minority from the beginning of time, a simple, religious, unwarlike people, a nation of peasants and shepherds whom the centuries had taught patience and humility," he declares, though without relating anything to substantiate this. "In America they were all this and more, foreigners in a strange land, ignorant of the land and customs, fearful of authority in whatever guise." 18 Churches exist in the depicted milieu, but much of the time they remain vague entities in the background. There is relatively little description of either individuals or Slovak-American families worshiping regularly or otherwise participating in ecc lesiastical life, and one finds only occasional hints of private religious devotion. (Certa in key exceptions are discussed below.) There are priests, of course, but one gets the impression that in Bell ' s fictional world some of the key characters interact with them only on special occasions, such as at weddings and funerals, or when they encounter a crisis and perceive a need for sacerdotal intervention . The first such instance occurs in the Old World. When Kracha elects to try his luck in America, he leaves his pregnant wife Elena in the care of his mother, an arrangement which proves inauspicious. The otherwise anonymous local priest who writes letters on behalf of these two presumably illiterate women informs Kracha that his a iling wife 17 18 Dav id P. Demarest, Jr. , " Afterword," in Bell , Ou! of This Furnace, 420. Bell , Ow of This Furnace, 123 . �62 SLOVAKIA 2021 and her mother-in-law are not fully compatible, especially when cohabiting in a one-room hut, and that he should do whatever is necessary to enable her relocation to America at the earliest opportunity. 19 Beyond that brief part, there is virtually nothing in Out of This Furnace about religious life in Slovakia. In the scattered comments about Slovak-American churches, one finds themes that reflect what one can read in nonfictional historical surveys. For example, new clusters of Slovak immigrants typically worshipped temporarily in the sanctuaries of non-Slovaks before founding their own parishes. Early in the narrative, a young Slovak immigrant couple have their nuptial mass in an Irish-American Roman Catholic church because there is not yet one of their own national heritage.20 When the number of Slovaks in individual locales increased to the point where they could organize their own parishes, they sometimes bought church edifices from Protestant congregations whose members were gradually moving to other communities. There are two occurrences of this in Out of This Furnace. In Braddock, Slovak Roman Catholics "took over" First Baptist Church and rededicated it as St. Michael's Church.2 1 Their ethnic fellows of Greek Catholi c loyalty followed suit shortly thereafter, purchasing what had been the First Presbyterian Church in an unappealing location a long the railroad tracks in the same small city. In its new denominational iteration, it had become St. Peter and St. Paul ' s. 22 Readers are not given nearly enough information about the ecclesiastica l life of the community to create a comprehensive portrait of that subject in general or the proportion of Slovaks who were active church members. There is no reason to believe that the dissolute Kracha is such an individual. On the other hand, after his sickly spouse Elena recovers sufficiently to leave the house, she begins to go to church every morning. However, this is described as the behavior of a mentally troubled soul who has largely withdrawn into herself, not as that of one with a normal socia l li fe . C lasping her rosary, Elena has " now more than ever a frightened , beaten look," perhaps owing to her 19 Bell , Bell , 21 Bell , 22 Bell , 20 0111 o( This Ou! of This Ou! of This 0111 of This Furnace, 14. Furnace, 19 . Furnace, 38. Furnace, 69. �SLOVAKIA 2021 63 inability to adapt to her difficult life as Kracha's wife in a dismal mill town. 23 The phenomenon of non-involvement in organized community religious life is dealt with only fleetingly . The most explicit example of this stems from Bell's critique of capitalist exploitation of the steelworkers. Kracha's colleague Joe Dubik is introduced as "a Rusnak, a Greek Catholic from Tvarosc in Sarisa." 24 Having preceded Kracha to Braddock, he welcomes his friend when the latter arrives and shows him around the town. Passing the Carnegie public library (endowed by the philanthropy of the Scottish immigrant steel magnate Andrew Carnegie), Dubik admits that he had never entered it. " When do I have the time for such things?" he explains wistfully. "Since they cut wages and put us on twelve hours l've even stopped going to church." 25 But some continue to attend mass. One is Mike Dobrejcak , the long-suffering son-in-law of Kracha, who rarely finds joy in life and is trapped in his career as a steelworker. In a paragraph of several hundred words, the narrator provides moving insight into the spiritual constitution of this second-generation Slovak-American and the personal significance of his religious life. He prefers to attend the evening mass in the Greek Catholic Church. In contrast to high mass, where God seems to be "the thundering, awe-inspiring Lord of the Universe in vestments of white and gold," for after sunset the deity seems to be "a friend whom one dropped in to visit, God still but God at ease, His shoes and trousers showing below His robes." This approachable deity is one to whom Mike can pray for his wife Mary, their children, and him self. He can do so confident that God is superior to steel corporations and their general superintendents. Moreover, and perhaps just as important to Mike, the church in which this relationship unfolds is a social leveler. In its sanctuary " he was not a check number of a Hunky laborer, but a man." God, he believes, cared not a whit about socioeconomic differences or ethnic strata in American society: " Here he was welcome, here he belonged . Here he spoke in his own tongue; and without fear, without awkwardness, he spoke of himself, hi s hopes, hi s troubles, hi s need of help. And God heard him out." The God of the church, and especially of evening mass, " knew him by name, knew 23 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 64. Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 10. 25 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 34. 24 �64 SLOVAKIA 2021 about Mary and the children understood how it was with all of them and had a pretty good idea what kind of person, behind his laborer's clothes and poor English, Mike really was. God , in short, liked him ." The psychological impact is subtle but real; "The world was always a less unfriendly place and he nearly always walked a little straighter, heartened, protected, when he came out." 26 Nor is Mike alone. The narrator acknowledges that more pews are empty than filled, but the congregation includes inter alia old parishioners who attended mass daily and twice on Sunday. Far more prevalent in the throng are young couples who also appreciated the subdued sociability of a vespers service. It gave them "an irreproachable excuse to be together and was cheaper than a trip to Kennywood," explains the narrator. 27 No single factor, in other words, expla ins why Slovak-Americans participate in the worship of their churches . Bell ' s fictional construction of Slovak participation in the unsuccessful 1919 Great Steel Strike gave him an opportunity to explore a dimension of the ro le of religious factors in a matter of immense personal interest. Hi s sympathy with the goals of the strike, which took place while he was sti ll a teenager in Braddock, is manifest. Bell included a paragraph listing the union's demands, among them such minimal conditions as an eight-hour day, the right of workers to bargain collectively, and one day off every week. 28 Against this background, the support of the long-serving priest in Braddock, Father Kazincy, for the campaign is understandable. Indeed, he has urged parishioners to join the union , and he allows an organizing committee to meet in the basement of his church. When "veiled threats" are made by an unidentified party to foreclose on the parish's mortgage, Kazincy replies that if that is done he will place a sign on the front of the building announcing: "Thi s Church of Christ c losed by the United States Steel Corporation ." He further show s his so lidari ty after mass at St. Michael's on the Sunday morning immediately before the beginning of the strike when a state trooper orders people who congregate outside the building to disperse: "Father Kazincy came out of the church and protested, a tall , gray-haired man in priestly robes standing 26 Bell , Out of This Furnace, 17 1. Bell, Out of This Furnace, 170. Launched in 1899 in West Miffin. southeast of Pittsburgh, Kenn ywood was an amusement park and picnic area th at attracted large numbers of workin g-cl ass people. 28 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 240. 27 �SLOVAKIA 2021 65 beside the trooper's restless horse, his face uplifted, alight with indignation." 29 This sympathy-inspiring partisanship is juxtaposed with less appealing conduct on the part of the Irish-dominated Roman Catholic Church . At its St. Brendan's Church " in the ' good ' part of town", the priest declares in his homily, "This strike is not being brought about by intelligent English-speaking workmen ... . You can't reason with these people. Don't reason with them." The appropriate response, he preached, was to "knock them down!" In Bell ' s narrative, this hostility meshed with the response of the diocesan hierarchy to the strike. A delegation of Catholic strikers call on the bishop of Pittsburgh (whom Bell calls "Bishop Canavan" but in fact was Regis Canevin from 1904 until 1921) imploring him to support the action, not least because a majority of the strikers are Catholics. But that prelate declines to do so. Underscoring the influence of the industrial magnates on religious life, "not long after that the Pittsburgh Catholic Charities received a check for twenty-five thousand dollars from the Carnegie Steel Company."30 An Atheist to the End Too little is known , and perhaps cannot be known , about Bell ' s low-profile life to trace whatever spiritual journey he may have had followed through his fifty-seven years. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the skepticism expressed in Out of This Furnace foreshadowed acknowledged atheism in his final book, In the Midst of life. This nonfictional volume, approximately 270 pages in length, was published a few months after his death in 1961 . It encompasses a miscellany of his thoughts and musings as a terminally ill cancer patient in Santa Cruz. Bell acknowledged in his first brief chapter that he was not on the same spiritual wavelength with many other people. "While others, in the old phrase, make their peace with God," he stated, "I must make mine with myself." 31 Bell noted that his beliefs differed markedly from those of one of his pious customers, a Mrs. Worth, who had sought to 29 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 241 . Out of This Furnace, 241 -2. 3 1Thomas Bell , In the Mid1·t a/Life (New York: Atheneum, 196 1), 5. 30 Bell, �66 SLOVAKIA 2021 encourage him at that critical stage of his life. He had even prayed to " Mrs. Worth 's God" in the privacy of a toilet at a hospital in Palo Alto, but his cancer had progressed unabated. Bell concluded that "belief in a supernatural god may disappear, and a good thing too," but in the same sentence he admitted that there were times "when one can only envy such people as Mrs. Worth. " 32 If his non credo of ca. 1960 represented his attitude towards the Christian faith two decades earlier, his willingness to write sympathetically, albeit briefly, about the religious life of his fictional characters at that time is all the more remarkable. Conclusion A juxtaposition of Out of This Furnace and the nonfictional texts cited in the present article highlights several problems that serious historians of religion encounter when they are seeking to gauge, even in an approximate way, the spiritual life of Slovak immigrants in North America. On the one hand, there are assertions about the group's devotion to Christianity in several of its denominational forms. These assurances are typically supported by reference to the hundreds of churches which Slovaks founded in the New World, usually in the early stages of their community life in surroundings still only partially familiar to them, and in many instances after unsatisfactory experiences in multi-ethnic parishes. On the other hand, when one reads Out of This Furnace as almost certainly the principal fictional reconstruction of Slovak-American history, one finds significantly less about religion than nonfictional literature might reasonably lead one to expect. Considered in isolation, Out a/This Furnace thus gives an impression that is difficult to harmoni ze with the large number of enduring Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and other sorts of parishes which these immigrants founded to serve as their spiritual homes. No doubt part of the answer inheres in accepting the fact that Slovak-Americans were by no means a monolithic entity, but a diverse segment of the Euro-American population which probably always included individuals with varying degrees of religious fervor and criticism thereof, different levels of moral development, and no uniformity of commitment to community life. Gauging the percentage of people 32 Bell, In the Mid1·1 a/Life, 8-9. �SLOVAKIA 2021 67 in any historic ethnic group who chose to affiliate with its religious institutions can be prohibitively difficult. Any calculations done in this regard would probably be estimates rather than precise statistics. Furthermore, such figures do not address the underlying problems of assessing personal commitment and spiritual life as opposed to nominal membership. Other dimensions of the phenomenon bedevil quantification . Historians must look carefully at how the character of their subject evolves over time. In this case, they would be compelled to examine, for instance, the religious commitment of the displaced people who formed the first generation in America and then their at least partly assimilated, Anglophone descendants. Did interest in ecclesiastical life vary diachronically? Was it consistent in large cities and small mill towns? Did it appear to be more vibrant in areas where the Slovaks constituted a relatively large percentage of the population than in those areas where they were but a small minority? Were married men more inclined than bachelors to participate in organized religious life? These and related questions are by no means limited to Slovaks or other Eastern and Central Europeans in North America and their descendants but are relevant to much of the ethnic panorama. A broad consideration of this obviously lies beyond the bounds of the present study, but two quite different kinds of examples illustrate the point. One stems from the present writer's extensive, multidenominational research on the history of the approximately 800,000 Norwegians who emigrated to the United States. Most of them were at least nominal members of the established Evangelical Lutheran Church in their homeland, although levels of participation in its sacraments, services, and so on varied greatly from region to region. Numerous " revival" movements, some of them led by lay preachers, had reinvigorated the spiritual life of the nation. Nonconformist denominations also sprouted in the nineteenth century, giving especially those Norwegians who lived in coastal towns some measure of churches from which to choose. At the same time, however, anticlerical critics emerged, sometimes in tandem with an incipient labor movement. After reaching the United States, large numbers of these Nordic newcomers formed many hundreds of Lutheran churches, chiefly in the Upper Midwest, with smaller numbers in other regions. They also founded several church-related undergraduate colleges, most of which continue to thrive in the twenty-first century, and several theological �68 SLOVAKIA 2021 seminaries for training new generations of pastors. All in all , denominational membership statistics clearly indicate that a higher percentage of Norwegian immigrants than their Swedish and Danish counterparts, to cite the most meaningful comparisons, were affiliated with what can be regarded as their birthright religious institutions. However, as I have demonstrated, this involvement varied immensely, and overall only about 30 percent of first-generation Norwegian-Americans became members of the ethnic Lutheran churches in which one might expect to find them .33 The evidence disconfirmed sweeping generalizations that historians of immigration had made for approximately two generations about the supposedly lofty level of religious loyalty among newcomers from Norway. Turning to a significantly different kind of example, in 1964 Rudolph J. Vecoli strongly challenged the generalized portrayal of immigrants in America which Oscar Handlin had presented in his Pulitzer Prize-winning popular history, The Uprooted, twelve years earlier. Writing about the tens of thousands of contadini (i.e. peasants) from southern Italy who had settled in Chicago, Vecoli declared that the noted Harvard historian 's theory that the process of adjusting to life on American shores had strengthened their religious li fe in an ali en environment. Not so, this Italian-American argued. "American priests were scandali zed by the indifference of the Italians to the Church . Even when Italian churches were provided by the Catholic hierarchy, the contadini seldom displayed any religious enthusiasm ." 34 Within the Slavic-American spectrum, the extent of Slovak detachment from organized religious life awaits detailed ana lysis. In 2005 sociologist Paul Froese published an article about the significantly differing levels of involvement in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in recent decades. He attributed the higher degree among Slovaks to a historically different relationship between religion and nationalism . " In Slovakia," he concluded, "Roman Catholi cism and nationalism are conjoined in much the same way as they are in Poland." One consequence of thi s is greater loya lty to the Roman Catholi c 33 Frederi ck Ha le, No rwegian Religious Pluralism: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992). 34 Rudo lph J. Vecoli , "Contadini in Chi cago: A Critique of The Uprooted." The Journal of American History LI , no. 3 ( December 1964): 415. �SLOVAKIA 2021 69 Church in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.35 Froese did not, however, deal at all with the history of religious life among Slovaks who had been transplanted to a different environment in North America. Establishing the defensible perimeter of descriptions of SlovakAmerican religious life thus remains a difficult task, one which would have to take into account not only formal religious involvement and activity but also the extent to which an as yet indeterminate number of people chose not to become affiliated or who were directly critical of Christianity and its institutions. Moreover, the historical calculus would have to take into account changes over time. Out of This Furnace offers a stimulating if obviously truncated impression of Slovak religious life during the first few crucial decades of this group's history in industrial America. Indeed, when one considers Bell's personal separation from that important dimension of his ethnic heritage, it is arguably surprising how many aspects of it appear in this novel. One finds observations about inter a/ia priestly ministry, interaction with non-Slovak churches, efforts to raise children according to traditional religious values, prayer, community worship, and the relationship between religious institutions and the labor movement. To be sure, there is silence about significant historical matters, such as the Lutheran and other Protestant churches among Slovak immigrants. Far too little about these topics has been published in any genre. Will future litterateurs take up their pens and construct engaging fictional accounts that tell readers far more about the spiritual life of the group, thereby further enriching the colorful tapestry of ethnic historical fiction? To be sure, no amount of meticulous research could replace Bell ' s first-hand knowledge of Slovak immigrant life in Braddock, but many historical novelists have crafted credible works about topics which they did not experience. While we might be ill-advised to hold our breath, we can find comfort in Alexander Pope ' s oft-quoted words, " Hope springs eternal in the human breast." 35 Paul Froese, "Secular Czechs and Devout Slova ks: Ex ploring Religious Differences," Review of Religious Research XL VI , no. 3 (March 2005): 269, 280. � SLOVAKIA 2021 53 RECONSIDERING SLOVAK-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT: THOMAS BELL'S OUT OF THIS FURNACE IN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT Frederick Hale Introduction If any work of fiction deserves to be called " the great SlovakAmerican historical novel ," it is undoubtedly Thomas Bell 's Out of This Furnace. To be sure, the competition is nearly non-existent. 1 Nevertheless, since its initial publication in 1941 , thi s volume of more than 400 pages has offered readers a hi ghly readable and insightful view of immigrant laborers and their descendants, chiefly in the steel mill town s of western Pennsylvania where many Slovaks toiled. Their presence became woven into the multicolored ethni c fabric of that once-booming region. Though for many upward social mobility came at a snai l's pace, organized community li fe began early and remained vibrant, and the members of the group contributed mightily to the prosperity of the cities in which they sacrificed seemingly endless hours on the a ltars of an economy of wh ich they were far more the victims than the lords. Beg inning, apparently, as economically virtually powerless and thus wi lling to accept their su bservient lot in life, many gradua lly gained a bolder spirit through the labor movements in which they participated . In tandem with their inevitable assim ilation, Slovak-Americans eventuall y gained a greater voice in the direction of their working lives. These interrelated matters form much of the thematic warp and woof of Bell 's much-lauded novel , which traces three generations through their tribul ations to a more ass imilated 1 Michael ovak 's quasi-autobiogra phical The Tiber Was S ilver ( 1961) failed to make a perceptible splash in the waters of American literature, and hi s Naked I l eave ( 1970), whi ch was more widely rev iewed, was a lso criticall y interpreted as a fictional ized mirror of hi s transition from Roman Catho li c se minarian to journalist. These intensely personal works by a prominent Slovak-American inte llectua l whose life began in Jo hn stown , Pennsylvania, in 1933 are not w itho ut arti stic merit , but th ey belo ng to a sub-genre o f ficti o n quite different from Be ll 's realistic po rtraya l of th e ethni c g roup's hi story in th e late nin eteenth and ea rl y twenti eth centuri es. �54 SLOVAKIA 2021 status and to higher rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Mu tat is mutandis, the story it tells echoes that of numerous other immigrant groups in urban America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Conceivably the eventual upward mobility-engendered in part by the labor movement- underlay the translation of this work into Slovak and its publication in 1949 in Czechoslovakia, when that country was to a great degree under the hegemony of the Soviet Union during the chilliest days of the Cold War. Furthermore, owing to its pedagogical value for teaching American immigration and labor hi story, in 1976 the University of Pittsburgh reprinted Out of This Furnace in response to a proposal by Professor David P. Demarest of Carnegie Mellon University. It fitted this social activist's converging interests in workingclass literature and labor history hand-in-glove. The relative popularity of the book led to a fiftieth anniversary edition in 1991. Bell illuminated many facets of Slovak-American working-class life and did not hesitate to include in his narrati ve several less savory dimensions of it that less candid writers might have chosen to minimize or ignore entirely in the interests of presenting palatable impressions of their respective ethnic groups. As Professor David J. Goldberg noted in 20 IO when advocating the assignment of Out of This Furnace to university students, " Men get drunk in saloons. Weddings and funerals are occasions for arguments." 2 A Limited Tradition of Scholarly Consideration Out of This Furnace has been neither the beneficiary nor the victim of extensive scholarly criticism, but it has not been completely ignored. In hi s study of American writers of the 1930s, especially those on the political Left, Leo Gurko devoted a few paragraphs to Bell ' s authorship and commented on this novel. However, Gurko did not evince adequate familiarity with this novelist's oeuvre. He judged that the ideological positions taken by Bell's characters "end with trade-unionism and anti-fascism," a myopic observation that overlooks the central character in All Brides Are Beautiful. Turning specifically to the hi storical span of Out o_fThis Furnace, Gurko thought that 2 David J. Goldberg, "Thomas Bell's 0111 o_(This Furnace: An Evaluation and an Appreciation," Journal of American Ethnic History, XXIX, no. 2 (Winter 2010), p. 664 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 55 it covered two generations of Slovak-Americans, when in fact it dealt with three. 3 In 1975, i.e. a year before its republication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, John F. Berko contributed an article about Bell as a novelist to the journal Slovak Studies but devoted only one page to this particular novel. 4 Furthermore, after encouraging its republication Demarest wrote a moderately detailed Afterword in which he provided useful information without dissecting the text. The eminent historian of Slovak immigrants in North America Marian Mark Stolarik has credited Bell with describing Slovak-American life "very we ll" but lamented that he had "completely ignored the religiosity" of this ethnic group. 5 Stolarik's criticism at this point dovetails neatly with what he and other historians have repeatedly stated about the enthusiasm of Slovak-Americans for ecclesiastical life. In his article " Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," for example, published in the Slovak League of America's celebratory bicentennial volume in 1978, Daniel F. Tanzone could declare without reserve that "the most di stinctive characteristic of the Slovaks is their deep and abiding faith in God." The zeal they evinced in Central Europe, he emphasized, became transatlantic as immigrants from Slovakia " made great effort to hear the word of God preached to them in their native Slovak tongue." 6 The linkage between social and religious life has also been highlighted in the pertinent historiography. As Stolarik explained in the 1980s, upon settling in the United States Slovaks typically initiated this by founding "fraternal-benefit" societies to provide emotional and economic safety nets. These lodges usually reflected the discrete religious affiliations of individuals within the larger group and were identifiable as de facto Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. From the religious cohesion of such local societies formal , 3 Leo Gurko, The Angty Decade (New York : Dodd, Mead and Company, 1947), 66-9. John F. Berko, "Thomas Bell ( 1903- 196 1) Slovak-Ameri can Novelist," Slovak S1udies, XV ( 1975), 143-58. 5 M. Mark Stolarik to Frederick Hale, 14 November 20 17 (electronic correspondence) . 6 Daniel F. Tanzone, "Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," in Slovaks in America: A Bicenlennial S!udy (Middletown, Pennsylvani a: The Slovak League of America, 1978), 57 . 4 �56 SLOVAKIA 2021 distinctly Slovak parishes sprang, often after a period of worshiping with, for example, Polish fellow immigrants.7 In his history of three generations of Slovak-Americans in the steel mill town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from the 1880s until the 1970s, Stolarik related in some detail how they were divided into three religious communities, chiefly Roman Catholic but also Greek Catholic and Lutheran . Church life among many of these people appears to have been vibrant, despite chronic financial hardship that, for example, protracted the amortization of mortgages. Church edifices began to appear at a very early stage. 8 He was thus not in doubt that " religion played a central role in the life of Bethlehem Slovaks."9 Of particular relevance to Out of This Furnace, Stolarik argued that on a national basis the "overwhelming loyalty" of Slovak-Americans to their religious life helped to immunize them from an early stage of their history to socialist movements which were drawing support from many other working-class immigrants well before the end of the nineteenth century. 10 More than two decades later, Stolarik published what may be the most up-to-date, albeit still brief, scholarly consideration of SlovakAmerican religious life. Writing in The Catholic Historical Review, he emphasized why the immigrants in question were divided into four denominations and how they adjusted to ecclesiastical circumstances in the United States of America and Canada, particularly the creation of specific ethnic parishes. Stolarik did not, however, deal with such matters as the non-affiliation of individuals with churches, anticlericalism, and hostility to or disagreement with religion as such. He judiciously acknowledged that much research remained to be done before historians could paint anything approaching a comprehensive portrait of the spiritual life of Slovak-Americans generally. 11 7 Marian Mark Stolarik , Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 18701918 (New York: AMS Press, Inc ., 1989), 82-3 . 8 M. Mark Stolarik, Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera/ions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. 1880-/9 76 (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1985), 44-62. 44. 10 Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization, 8 1. 11 M. Mark Stolarik, " Slovak Immigrants Come to Term s with Reli g ious Diversity in North America," The Catholic Historical Review, XCVI , no. I (January 20 I 0): 5684. 9 Ibid ., �SLOVAKIA 2021 57 The publication in 2012 of his lengthy Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America (/ 870-2010) gave Stolarik an opportunity to touch on aspects of Slovak immigrants ' religious life in North America. His seventh chapter, "Slovak Marxists Disagree" dealt with what he acknowledged were the "few Marxists" among the Slovaks in the United States and Canada. This minuscule segment established mutual benefit societies which competed on a minor scale with the churches for the loyalty of the immigrants and their descendants but, as Stolarik emphasized, "their number remained small." 12 He briefly traced a waning of the socialists ' initially strident criticism ofreligious life and concluded that by the 1940s the verbal warfare had ceased. 13 The di sagreements to which the chapter' s title refers were largely those among the socialists themselves, especially with regard to political developments in their homeland, not to disputes between these men of the left and the ecclesiastical traditions they had left behind. The empirically challenging question of the scope of general SlovakAmerican indifference to and non-participation in formal religious life thus remained essentially unanswered. Regarding participation in secular campaigns to improve working conditions in industrial America, it is difficult to ascertain how many of these newcomers and their descendants supported the more inclusive labor movement, which in the USA was only partly socialist. However, it is known that Bell himself was a man of the Left, albeit not in a consistently outspoken way. How unrepresentative of SlovakAmericans he was in that regard is an interesting question, though one that necessarily lies beyond the scope of the present article. At any rate, in Out o_f This Furnace Bell presented the labor movement in a positive manner and highlighted the participation of at least a small number of Slovak-Americans in it. This is probably significant to an understanding of the dispersed treatment of religion in this fictional construction. 12 M. Mark Stolarik, Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America ( / 87020 10) (Bern : Peter Lang AG, Internati onal Academi c Publishers, 201 2), p. 205. 13 Stolarik, Wh ere Is My Home?, pp. 2 12-2 13. �58 SLOVAKIA 2021 A Little-known Literary A rtist Bell ' s earl y li fe endowed him with an intimate know ledge of hi s subj ect. His parents were fro m the village of Ni zny Tvarozec in the Bardejov d istri ct of the Presov reg ion of northwestern Slovaki a. He was born in the mill tow n of Braddock, Penn sylvani a, j ust east of Pi ttsburgh, in 1903 . 14 That small c ity had a popul ati on of 15,654 in 1900, a fig ure whi ch rose to sli ghtly over 20,000 two decades later before a persistent dec line reduced it to a poverty-stri cken village in the late twentieth century. His origi nal name was Ada lbert Thomas Belejcak, a cu mbersome moniker whi ch he never used during hi s career as a nove li st. Leav ing schoo l as an ado lescent, he worked loca ll y from age fifteen as an electri c ian' s apprenti ce but in 1922 re located to New York and was vari ously empl oyed fo r approximate ly a decade as a merchant sea man, boo kstore clerk , and mechani c. Bell 's first nove l, The Breed of Bas il, appeared in 1930, and from 1933 onward he was a fu ll -time writer, th ough onl y fi ve of hi s nove ls were issued. Hi s All Brides Are Beautiful was the bas is of a motion picture starrin g Joa n Fonta ine and Mark Stevens, and Till! Come Back to You was dramati zed and produced on Broadway by Jed Harri s. In other noteworthy d imensions of his career w ith the pen, Be ll contri buted short stori es to such magazi nes as McCall 's and Ladies ' Home J ournal, and eventuall y worked as a Holl ywood screenwriter. After mov ing to Cali fo rni a in 1955 , he continued to write sporadi ca ll y whil e operating the East Side Gift and Stati onery Shop in Santa Cruz. His hea lth deteri orated in the late 1950s, and he di ed of cancer in 196 1. The fun era l was held in a mortuary chapel rather than a church, and Bell 's ashes were interred at the crematory of the Independent Order of Odd Fell ows . 15 The few sources of readil y ava il able info rmation about hi s li fe do not suggest th at he had any ex perience in Slovaki a, and nothin g in Out of This Furnace indi cates that he had noteworthy know ledge of that coun try apart fro m what may have been handed down ora ll y from hi s fo rebears. Bell appears to have reli ed almost exc lusive ly on ora l traditi on and memories of hi s childhood in western Penn sy lvani a when craftin g thi s nove l. 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wikiff homas_ Bell_(nove list). Accessed 2 January 2020. For SC ovelist T homas Bell Set," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 17 January I 96 1, p. 12. 15 " Servi ces �SLOVAKIA 2021 59 Ideologically, Bell stood unabashedly on the left flank of the American political spectrum. This comes to the fore more vividly in his credible proletarian novel of 1936, All Brides Are Beautiful, which was the basis of the motion picture From This Day Forward, which premiered in 1946. Set in New York during the Depression of the 1930s, its principal protagonist is an Irish-American named Peter Cummings who, like many of his fellow citizens, suffers from underemployment and discrimination in the labor market. He reads a new book of British origin, The Nature of Capitalist Crisis, by John Strachey, a Labour Party politician who, despite his bourgeois origins (his father edited the Conservative-supporting periodical The Spectator) and privileged education at Eton College and the University of Oxford , was a communist sympathizer before turning against Communism in 1940. The narrative is peppered with references to inter alia the Workers Bookshop and the newspaper Daily Worker, published in New York by the Communist Party of the United States of America. In response to a query by another character, Cummings confirms his suspected political sympathies but qualifies this by assuring her, "I ' m not a very good Communist." 16 In the general scholarly literature about American literature (in which works by many individuals about immigrant groups are relatively well represented), Bell remains almost completely invisible. Never did an article about him appear in the hundreds of volumes in the nearly exhaustive reference work Contemporary Authors. As of 2020, the seemingly very inclusive Dictionary of Literary Biography, well over 300 volumes strong, has not included an essay about Bell. Rarely is he even mentioned in general surveys of the wider subject. Anyone searching for information about this fairly productive writer' s life and oeuvre will be fortunate to reap even a meager harvest of information . Contemporary reviews of his novels are a partial exception to this generalization, but even they are not particularly abundant. Out of This Furnace is a constructed family epic, and not even the later stages of the saga, which overlap with its author' s life, are quite autobiographical. In his Afterword in the 1976 edition, Demarest relied heavily on information gleaned from Bell's younger brother, 16 Thomas Bell , All Brides Are Beautiful (Boston: Linle, Brown, and Company, 1936), 21 6. �60 SLOVAKIA 2021 Anthony, to highlight certain fictional departures from the ostensible facts of the Belejcak family history . Plot Summary Out of This Furnace is structured in four parts. The first deals principally with George (or "Djuro") Kracha, who leaves his Slovak peasant life (and, temporarily, his young and pregnant wife in the care of his mother) in the autumn of 1881. After giving birth to a son a few months later, she joins him in Pennsylvania. They eke out a basic existence as George finds employment in a steel mill but his upward mobility is limited to operating a temporarily profitable butcher shop. There is no moral progression in this character. After his wife dies, he marries a fellow Slovak who emigrated simultaneous ly with him, but this frequently inebriated and cognitively unimpressive man is jailed for beating her. The second and third parts relate in much detail the lives of his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Mike Dobrejcak. These members of the second-generation toil arduously but receive scant reward for their labors. However, they are confident that their son, Dobie, can enjoy a materially better life than they have, a conviction this quite Americanized lad shares. He fulfills their expectations to a great degree. Having received several years' schooling, he speaks Eng li sh fluently and uses his rhetorical talent to advocate workers ' rights. In the fourth part, Dobie also toils in mills but plays a crucial role in the unionization of the labor force regionally and ventures to Washington to participate in labor negotiations. To a vastly greater degree than his immigrant grandfather, Dobie embodies an altrui stic spirit. He is a considerate husband and parent who is concerned not merely about his own welfare but a lso that of his descendants and of the working class in general. All in all , the saga of this family through three generations relates much about the initially glacial but gradual and inconsistent rise of Slovak-Americans during decades when the spoils of the labor and entrepreneurial spirit that transformed the United States into a massive industrial power were so unevenly distributed. In doing so, Bell's novel sheds much light on social relationships within the ethnic group, the partial retention of ethnic culture, and other related matters. �SLOVAKIA 2021 61 A Miscellany of Religious Motifs The narrative does not deal in nearly as much detail about the reli gious life of Slovak-Americans as historians of Christianity might wi sh. This theme plays second or third fiddle in an otherwise fairly well-deve loped fictional orchestration of immigrant hi story. How much Bell knew about that aspect of his family's story which forms the core of the construction is difficult to assess. According to his brother Anthony, who provided Demarest with information about the clan, their father was a very active layman " in the church and related organizations" whose involvement in them took him to meetings throughout Pennsylvania and in Ohio. 17 In one of the most didactic sections of Part Two, the narrator genera li zes about the characteristics of the ethnic group. " In the o ld country the Slovaks had been an oppressed minority from the beginning of time, a simple, religious, unwarlike people, a nation of peasants and shepherds whom the centuries had taught patience and humility," he declares, though without relating anything to substantiate this. "In America they were all this and more, foreigners in a strange land, ignorant of the land and customs, fearful of authority in whatever guise." 18 Churches exist in the depicted milieu, but much of the time they remain vague entities in the background. There is relatively little description of either individuals or Slovak-American families worshiping regularly or otherwise participating in ecc lesiastical life, and one finds only occasional hints of private religious devotion. (Certa in key exceptions are discussed below.) There are priests, of course, but one gets the impression that in Bell ' s fictional world some of the key characters interact with them only on special occasions, such as at weddings and funerals, or when they encounter a crisis and perceive a need for sacerdotal intervention . The first such instance occurs in the Old World. When Kracha elects to try his luck in America, he leaves his pregnant wife Elena in the care of his mother, an arrangement which proves inauspicious. The otherwise anonymous local priest who writes letters on behalf of these two presumably illiterate women informs Kracha that his a iling wife 17 18 Dav id P. Demarest, Jr. , " Afterword," in Bell , Ou! of This Furnace, 420. Bell , Ow of This Furnace, 123 . �62 SLOVAKIA 2021 and her mother-in-law are not fully compatible, especially when cohabiting in a one-room hut, and that he should do whatever is necessary to enable her relocation to America at the earliest opportunity. 19 Beyond that brief part, there is virtually nothing in Out of This Furnace about religious life in Slovakia. In the scattered comments about Slovak-American churches, one finds themes that reflect what one can read in nonfictional historical surveys. For example, new clusters of Slovak immigrants typically worshipped temporarily in the sanctuaries of non-Slovaks before founding their own parishes. Early in the narrative, a young Slovak immigrant couple have their nuptial mass in an Irish-American Roman Catholic church because there is not yet one of their own national heritage.20 When the number of Slovaks in individual locales increased to the point where they could organize their own parishes, they sometimes bought church edifices from Protestant congregations whose members were gradually moving to other communities. There are two occurrences of this in Out of This Furnace. In Braddock, Slovak Roman Catholics "took over" First Baptist Church and rededicated it as St. Michael's Church.2 1 Their ethnic fellows of Greek Catholi c loyalty followed suit shortly thereafter, purchasing what had been the First Presbyterian Church in an unappealing location a long the railroad tracks in the same small city. In its new denominational iteration, it had become St. Peter and St. Paul ' s. 22 Readers are not given nearly enough information about the ecclesiastica l life of the community to create a comprehensive portrait of that subject in general or the proportion of Slovaks who were active church members. There is no reason to believe that the dissolute Kracha is such an individual. On the other hand, after his sickly spouse Elena recovers sufficiently to leave the house, she begins to go to church every morning. However, this is described as the behavior of a mentally troubled soul who has largely withdrawn into herself, not as that of one with a normal socia l li fe . C lasping her rosary, Elena has " now more than ever a frightened , beaten look," perhaps owing to her 19 Bell , Bell , 21 Bell , 22 Bell , 20 0111 o( This Ou! of This Ou! of This 0111 of This Furnace, 14. Furnace, 19 . Furnace, 38. Furnace, 69. �SLOVAKIA 2021 63 inability to adapt to her difficult life as Kracha's wife in a dismal mill town. 23 The phenomenon of non-involvement in organized community religious life is dealt with only fleetingly . The most explicit example of this stems from Bell's critique of capitalist exploitation of the steelworkers. Kracha's colleague Joe Dubik is introduced as "a Rusnak, a Greek Catholic from Tvarosc in Sarisa." 24 Having preceded Kracha to Braddock, he welcomes his friend when the latter arrives and shows him around the town. Passing the Carnegie public library (endowed by the philanthropy of the Scottish immigrant steel magnate Andrew Carnegie), Dubik admits that he had never entered it. " When do I have the time for such things?" he explains wistfully. "Since they cut wages and put us on twelve hours l've even stopped going to church." 25 But some continue to attend mass. One is Mike Dobrejcak , the long-suffering son-in-law of Kracha, who rarely finds joy in life and is trapped in his career as a steelworker. In a paragraph of several hundred words, the narrator provides moving insight into the spiritual constitution of this second-generation Slovak-American and the personal significance of his religious life. He prefers to attend the evening mass in the Greek Catholic Church. In contrast to high mass, where God seems to be "the thundering, awe-inspiring Lord of the Universe in vestments of white and gold," for after sunset the deity seems to be "a friend whom one dropped in to visit, God still but God at ease, His shoes and trousers showing below His robes." This approachable deity is one to whom Mike can pray for his wife Mary, their children, and him self. He can do so confident that God is superior to steel corporations and their general superintendents. Moreover, and perhaps just as important to Mike, the church in which this relationship unfolds is a social leveler. In its sanctuary " he was not a check number of a Hunky laborer, but a man." God, he believes, cared not a whit about socioeconomic differences or ethnic strata in American society: " Here he was welcome, here he belonged . Here he spoke in his own tongue; and without fear, without awkwardness, he spoke of himself, hi s hopes, hi s troubles, hi s need of help. And God heard him out." The God of the church, and especially of evening mass, " knew him by name, knew 23 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 64. Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 10. 25 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 34. 24 �64 SLOVAKIA 2021 about Mary and the children understood how it was with all of them and had a pretty good idea what kind of person, behind his laborer's clothes and poor English, Mike really was. God , in short, liked him ." The psychological impact is subtle but real; "The world was always a less unfriendly place and he nearly always walked a little straighter, heartened, protected, when he came out." 26 Nor is Mike alone. The narrator acknowledges that more pews are empty than filled, but the congregation includes inter alia old parishioners who attended mass daily and twice on Sunday. Far more prevalent in the throng are young couples who also appreciated the subdued sociability of a vespers service. It gave them "an irreproachable excuse to be together and was cheaper than a trip to Kennywood," explains the narrator. 27 No single factor, in other words, expla ins why Slovak-Americans participate in the worship of their churches . Bell ' s fictional construction of Slovak participation in the unsuccessful 1919 Great Steel Strike gave him an opportunity to explore a dimension of the ro le of religious factors in a matter of immense personal interest. Hi s sympathy with the goals of the strike, which took place while he was sti ll a teenager in Braddock, is manifest. Bell included a paragraph listing the union's demands, among them such minimal conditions as an eight-hour day, the right of workers to bargain collectively, and one day off every week. 28 Against this background, the support of the long-serving priest in Braddock, Father Kazincy, for the campaign is understandable. Indeed, he has urged parishioners to join the union , and he allows an organizing committee to meet in the basement of his church. When "veiled threats" are made by an unidentified party to foreclose on the parish's mortgage, Kazincy replies that if that is done he will place a sign on the front of the building announcing: "Thi s Church of Christ c losed by the United States Steel Corporation ." He further show s his so lidari ty after mass at St. Michael's on the Sunday morning immediately before the beginning of the strike when a state trooper orders people who congregate outside the building to disperse: "Father Kazincy came out of the church and protested, a tall , gray-haired man in priestly robes standing 26 Bell , Out of This Furnace, 17 1. Bell, Out of This Furnace, 170. Launched in 1899 in West Miffin. southeast of Pittsburgh, Kenn ywood was an amusement park and picnic area th at attracted large numbers of workin g-cl ass people. 28 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 240. 27 �SLOVAKIA 2021 65 beside the trooper's restless horse, his face uplifted, alight with indignation." 29 This sympathy-inspiring partisanship is juxtaposed with less appealing conduct on the part of the Irish-dominated Roman Catholic Church . At its St. Brendan's Church " in the ' good ' part of town", the priest declares in his homily, "This strike is not being brought about by intelligent English-speaking workmen ... . You can't reason with these people. Don't reason with them." The appropriate response, he preached, was to "knock them down!" In Bell ' s narrative, this hostility meshed with the response of the diocesan hierarchy to the strike. A delegation of Catholic strikers call on the bishop of Pittsburgh (whom Bell calls "Bishop Canavan" but in fact was Regis Canevin from 1904 until 1921) imploring him to support the action, not least because a majority of the strikers are Catholics. But that prelate declines to do so. Underscoring the influence of the industrial magnates on religious life, "not long after that the Pittsburgh Catholic Charities received a check for twenty-five thousand dollars from the Carnegie Steel Company."30 An Atheist to the End Too little is known , and perhaps cannot be known , about Bell ' s low-profile life to trace whatever spiritual journey he may have had followed through his fifty-seven years. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the skepticism expressed in Out of This Furnace foreshadowed acknowledged atheism in his final book, In the Midst of life. This nonfictional volume, approximately 270 pages in length, was published a few months after his death in 1961 . It encompasses a miscellany of his thoughts and musings as a terminally ill cancer patient in Santa Cruz. Bell acknowledged in his first brief chapter that he was not on the same spiritual wavelength with many other people. "While others, in the old phrase, make their peace with God," he stated, "I must make mine with myself." 31 Bell noted that his beliefs differed markedly from those of one of his pious customers, a Mrs. Worth, who had sought to 29 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 241 . Out of This Furnace, 241 -2. 3 1Thomas Bell , In the Mid1·t a/Life (New York: Atheneum, 196 1), 5. 30 Bell, �66 SLOVAKIA 2021 encourage him at that critical stage of his life. He had even prayed to " Mrs. Worth 's God" in the privacy of a toilet at a hospital in Palo Alto, but his cancer had progressed unabated. Bell concluded that "belief in a supernatural god may disappear, and a good thing too," but in the same sentence he admitted that there were times "when one can only envy such people as Mrs. Worth. " 32 If his non credo of ca. 1960 represented his attitude towards the Christian faith two decades earlier, his willingness to write sympathetically, albeit briefly, about the religious life of his fictional characters at that time is all the more remarkable. Conclusion A juxtaposition of Out of This Furnace and the nonfictional texts cited in the present article highlights several problems that serious historians of religion encounter when they are seeking to gauge, even in an approximate way, the spiritual life of Slovak immigrants in North America. On the one hand, there are assertions about the group's devotion to Christianity in several of its denominational forms. These assurances are typically supported by reference to the hundreds of churches which Slovaks founded in the New World, usually in the early stages of their community life in surroundings still only partially familiar to them, and in many instances after unsatisfactory experiences in multi-ethnic parishes. On the other hand, when one reads Out of This Furnace as almost certainly the principal fictional reconstruction of Slovak-American history, one finds significantly less about religion than nonfictional literature might reasonably lead one to expect. Considered in isolation, Out a/This Furnace thus gives an impression that is difficult to harmoni ze with the large number of enduring Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and other sorts of parishes which these immigrants founded to serve as their spiritual homes. No doubt part of the answer inheres in accepting the fact that Slovak-Americans were by no means a monolithic entity, but a diverse segment of the Euro-American population which probably always included individuals with varying degrees of religious fervor and criticism thereof, different levels of moral development, and no uniformity of commitment to community life. Gauging the percentage of people 32 Bell, In the Mid1·1 a/Life, 8-9. �SLOVAKIA 2021 67 in any historic ethnic group who chose to affiliate with its religious institutions can be prohibitively difficult. Any calculations done in this regard would probably be estimates rather than precise statistics. Furthermore, such figures do not address the underlying problems of assessing personal commitment and spiritual life as opposed to nominal membership. Other dimensions of the phenomenon bedevil quantification . Historians must look carefully at how the character of their subject evolves over time. In this case, they would be compelled to examine, for instance, the religious commitment of the displaced people who formed the first generation in America and then their at least partly assimilated, Anglophone descendants. Did interest in ecclesiastical life vary diachronically? Was it consistent in large cities and small mill towns? Did it appear to be more vibrant in areas where the Slovaks constituted a relatively large percentage of the population than in those areas where they were but a small minority? Were married men more inclined than bachelors to participate in organized religious life? These and related questions are by no means limited to Slovaks or other Eastern and Central Europeans in North America and their descendants but are relevant to much of the ethnic panorama. A broad consideration of this obviously lies beyond the bounds of the present study, but two quite different kinds of examples illustrate the point. One stems from the present writer's extensive, multidenominational research on the history of the approximately 800,000 Norwegians who emigrated to the United States. Most of them were at least nominal members of the established Evangelical Lutheran Church in their homeland, although levels of participation in its sacraments, services, and so on varied greatly from region to region. Numerous " revival" movements, some of them led by lay preachers, had reinvigorated the spiritual life of the nation. Nonconformist denominations also sprouted in the nineteenth century, giving especially those Norwegians who lived in coastal towns some measure of churches from which to choose. At the same time, however, anticlerical critics emerged, sometimes in tandem with an incipient labor movement. After reaching the United States, large numbers of these Nordic newcomers formed many hundreds of Lutheran churches, chiefly in the Upper Midwest, with smaller numbers in other regions. They also founded several church-related undergraduate colleges, most of which continue to thrive in the twenty-first century, and several theological �68 SLOVAKIA 2021 seminaries for training new generations of pastors. All in all , denominational membership statistics clearly indicate that a higher percentage of Norwegian immigrants than their Swedish and Danish counterparts, to cite the most meaningful comparisons, were affiliated with what can be regarded as their birthright religious institutions. However, as I have demonstrated, this involvement varied immensely, and overall only about 30 percent of first-generation Norwegian-Americans became members of the ethnic Lutheran churches in which one might expect to find them .33 The evidence disconfirmed sweeping generalizations that historians of immigration had made for approximately two generations about the supposedly lofty level of religious loyalty among newcomers from Norway. Turning to a significantly different kind of example, in 1964 Rudolph J. Vecoli strongly challenged the generalized portrayal of immigrants in America which Oscar Handlin had presented in his Pulitzer Prize-winning popular history, The Uprooted, twelve years earlier. Writing about the tens of thousands of contadini (i.e. peasants) from southern Italy who had settled in Chicago, Vecoli declared that the noted Harvard historian 's theory that the process of adjusting to life on American shores had strengthened their religious li fe in an ali en environment. Not so, this Italian-American argued. "American priests were scandali zed by the indifference of the Italians to the Church . Even when Italian churches were provided by the Catholic hierarchy, the contadini seldom displayed any religious enthusiasm ." 34 Within the Slavic-American spectrum, the extent of Slovak detachment from organized religious life awaits detailed ana lysis. In 2005 sociologist Paul Froese published an article about the significantly differing levels of involvement in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in recent decades. He attributed the higher degree among Slovaks to a historically different relationship between religion and nationalism . " In Slovakia," he concluded, "Roman Catholi cism and nationalism are conjoined in much the same way as they are in Poland." One consequence of thi s is greater loya lty to the Roman Catholi c 33 Frederi ck Ha le, No rwegian Religious Pluralism: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992). 34 Rudo lph J. Vecoli , "Contadini in Chi cago: A Critique of The Uprooted." The Journal of American History LI , no. 3 ( December 1964): 415. �SLOVAKIA 2021 69 Church in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.35 Froese did not, however, deal at all with the history of religious life among Slovaks who had been transplanted to a different environment in North America. Establishing the defensible perimeter of descriptions of SlovakAmerican religious life thus remains a difficult task, one which would have to take into account not only formal religious involvement and activity but also the extent to which an as yet indeterminate number of people chose not to become affiliated or who were directly critical of Christianity and its institutions. Moreover, the historical calculus would have to take into account changes over time. Out of This Furnace offers a stimulating if obviously truncated impression of Slovak religious life during the first few crucial decades of this group's history in industrial America. Indeed, when one considers Bell's personal separation from that important dimension of his ethnic heritage, it is arguably surprising how many aspects of it appear in this novel. One finds observations about inter a/ia priestly ministry, interaction with non-Slovak churches, efforts to raise children according to traditional religious values, prayer, community worship, and the relationship between religious institutions and the labor movement. To be sure, there is silence about significant historical matters, such as the Lutheran and other Protestant churches among Slovak immigrants. Far too little about these topics has been published in any genre. Will future litterateurs take up their pens and construct engaging fictional accounts that tell readers far more about the spiritual life of the group, thereby further enriching the colorful tapestry of ethnic historical fiction? To be sure, no amount of meticulous research could replace Bell ' s first-hand knowledge of Slovak immigrant life in Braddock, but many historical novelists have crafted credible works about topics which they did not experience. While we might be ill-advised to hold our breath, we can find comfort in Alexander Pope ' s oft-quoted words, " Hope springs eternal in the human breast." 35 Paul Froese, "Secular Czechs and Devout Slova ks: Ex ploring Religious Differences," Review of Religious Research XL VI , no. 3 (March 2005): 269, 280. � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 53 RECONSIDERING SLOVAK-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT: THOMAS BELL'S OUT OF THIS FURNACE IN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT Frederick Hale Introduction If any work of fiction deserves to be called " the great SlovakAmerican historical novel ," it is undoubtedly Thomas Bell 's Out of This Furnace. To be sure, the competition is nearly non-existent. 1 Nevertheless, since its initial publication in 1941 , thi s volume of more than 400 pages has offered readers a hi ghly readable and insightful view of immigrant laborers and their descendants, chiefly in the steel mill town s of western Pennsylvania where many Slovaks toiled. Their presence became woven into the multicolored ethni c fabric of that once-booming region. Though for many upward social mobility came at a snai l's pace, organized community li fe began early and remained vibrant, and the members of the group contributed mightily to the prosperity of the cities in which they sacrificed seemingly endless hours on the a ltars of an economy of wh ich they were far more the victims than the lords. Beg inning, apparently, as economically virtually powerless and thus wi lling to accept their su bservient lot in life, many gradua lly gained a bolder spirit through the labor movements in which they participated . In tandem with their inevitable assim ilation, Slovak-Americans eventuall y gained a greater voice in the direction of their working lives. These interrelated matters form much of the thematic warp and woof of Bell 's much-lauded novel , which traces three generations through their tribul ations to a more ass imilated 1 Michael ovak 's quasi-autobiogra phical The Tiber Was S ilver ( 1961) failed to make a perceptible splash in the waters of American literature, and hi s Naked I l eave ( 1970), whi ch was more widely rev iewed, was a lso criticall y interpreted as a fictional ized mirror of hi s transition from Roman Catho li c se minarian to journalist. These intensely personal works by a prominent Slovak-American inte llectua l whose life began in Jo hn stown , Pennsylvania, in 1933 are not w itho ut arti stic merit , but th ey belo ng to a sub-genre o f ficti o n quite different from Be ll 's realistic po rtraya l of th e ethni c g roup's hi story in th e late nin eteenth and ea rl y twenti eth centuri es. 54 SLOVAKIA 2021 status and to higher rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Mu tat is mutandis, the story it tells echoes that of numerous other immigrant groups in urban America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Conceivably the eventual upward mobility-engendered in part by the labor movement- underlay the translation of this work into Slovak and its publication in 1949 in Czechoslovakia, when that country was to a great degree under the hegemony of the Soviet Union during the chilliest days of the Cold War. Furthermore, owing to its pedagogical value for teaching American immigration and labor hi story, in 1976 the University of Pittsburgh reprinted Out of This Furnace in response to a proposal by Professor David P. Demarest of Carnegie Mellon University. It fitted this social activist's converging interests in workingclass literature and labor history hand-in-glove. The relative popularity of the book led to a fiftieth anniversary edition in 1991. Bell illuminated many facets of Slovak-American working-class life and did not hesitate to include in his narrati ve several less savory dimensions of it that less candid writers might have chosen to minimize or ignore entirely in the interests of presenting palatable impressions of their respective ethnic groups. As Professor David J. Goldberg noted in 20 IO when advocating the assignment of Out of This Furnace to university students, " Men get drunk in saloons. Weddings and funerals are occasions for arguments." 2 A Limited Tradition of Scholarly Consideration Out of This Furnace has been neither the beneficiary nor the victim of extensive scholarly criticism, but it has not been completely ignored. In hi s study of American writers of the 1930s, especially those on the political Left, Leo Gurko devoted a few paragraphs to Bell ' s authorship and commented on this novel. However, Gurko did not evince adequate familiarity with this novelist's oeuvre. He judged that the ideological positions taken by Bell's characters "end with trade-unionism and anti-fascism," a myopic observation that overlooks the central character in All Brides Are Beautiful. Turning specifically to the hi storical span of Out o_fThis Furnace, Gurko thought that 2 David J. Goldberg, "Thomas Bell's 0111 o_(This Furnace: An Evaluation and an Appreciation," Journal of American Ethnic History, XXIX, no. 2 (Winter 2010), p. 664 . SLOVAKIA 2021 55 it covered two generations of Slovak-Americans, when in fact it dealt with three. 3 In 1975, i.e. a year before its republication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, John F. Berko contributed an article about Bell as a novelist to the journal Slovak Studies but devoted only one page to this particular novel. 4 Furthermore, after encouraging its republication Demarest wrote a moderately detailed Afterword in which he provided useful information without dissecting the text. The eminent historian of Slovak immigrants in North America Marian Mark Stolarik has credited Bell with describing Slovak-American life "very we ll" but lamented that he had "completely ignored the religiosity" of this ethnic group. 5 Stolarik's criticism at this point dovetails neatly with what he and other historians have repeatedly stated about the enthusiasm of Slovak-Americans for ecclesiastical life. In his article " Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," for example, published in the Slovak League of America's celebratory bicentennial volume in 1978, Daniel F. Tanzone could declare without reserve that "the most di stinctive characteristic of the Slovaks is their deep and abiding faith in God." The zeal they evinced in Central Europe, he emphasized, became transatlantic as immigrants from Slovakia " made great effort to hear the word of God preached to them in their native Slovak tongue." 6 The linkage between social and religious life has also been highlighted in the pertinent historiography. As Stolarik explained in the 1980s, upon settling in the United States Slovaks typically initiated this by founding "fraternal-benefit" societies to provide emotional and economic safety nets. These lodges usually reflected the discrete religious affiliations of individuals within the larger group and were identifiable as de facto Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. From the religious cohesion of such local societies formal , 3 Leo Gurko, The Angty Decade (New York : Dodd, Mead and Company, 1947), 66-9. John F. Berko, "Thomas Bell ( 1903- 196 1) Slovak-Ameri can Novelist," Slovak S1udies, XV ( 1975), 143-58. 5 M. Mark Stolarik to Frederick Hale, 14 November 20 17 (electronic correspondence) . 6 Daniel F. Tanzone, "Religious Developments Among the Slovaks in America," in Slovaks in America: A Bicenlennial S!udy (Middletown, Pennsylvani a: The Slovak League of America, 1978), 57 . 4 56 SLOVAKIA 2021 distinctly Slovak parishes sprang, often after a period of worshiping with, for example, Polish fellow immigrants.7 In his history of three generations of Slovak-Americans in the steel mill town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from the 1880s until the 1970s, Stolarik related in some detail how they were divided into three religious communities, chiefly Roman Catholic but also Greek Catholic and Lutheran . Church life among many of these people appears to have been vibrant, despite chronic financial hardship that, for example, protracted the amortization of mortgages. Church edifices began to appear at a very early stage. 8 He was thus not in doubt that " religion played a central role in the life of Bethlehem Slovaks."9 Of particular relevance to Out of This Furnace, Stolarik argued that on a national basis the "overwhelming loyalty" of Slovak-Americans to their religious life helped to immunize them from an early stage of their history to socialist movements which were drawing support from many other working-class immigrants well before the end of the nineteenth century. 10 More than two decades later, Stolarik published what may be the most up-to-date, albeit still brief, scholarly consideration of SlovakAmerican religious life. Writing in The Catholic Historical Review, he emphasized why the immigrants in question were divided into four denominations and how they adjusted to ecclesiastical circumstances in the United States of America and Canada, particularly the creation of specific ethnic parishes. Stolarik did not, however, deal with such matters as the non-affiliation of individuals with churches, anticlericalism, and hostility to or disagreement with religion as such. He judiciously acknowledged that much research remained to be done before historians could paint anything approaching a comprehensive portrait of the spiritual life of Slovak-Americans generally. 11 7 Marian Mark Stolarik , Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 18701918 (New York: AMS Press, Inc ., 1989), 82-3 . 8 M. Mark Stolarik, Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera/ions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. 1880-/9 76 (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1985), 44-62. 44. 10 Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization, 8 1. 11 M. Mark Stolarik, " Slovak Immigrants Come to Term s with Reli g ious Diversity in North America," The Catholic Historical Review, XCVI , no. I (January 20 I 0): 5684. 9 Ibid ., SLOVAKIA 2021 57 The publication in 2012 of his lengthy Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America (/ 870-2010) gave Stolarik an opportunity to touch on aspects of Slovak immigrants ' religious life in North America. His seventh chapter, "Slovak Marxists Disagree" dealt with what he acknowledged were the "few Marxists" among the Slovaks in the United States and Canada. This minuscule segment established mutual benefit societies which competed on a minor scale with the churches for the loyalty of the immigrants and their descendants but, as Stolarik emphasized, "their number remained small." 12 He briefly traced a waning of the socialists ' initially strident criticism ofreligious life and concluded that by the 1940s the verbal warfare had ceased. 13 The di sagreements to which the chapter' s title refers were largely those among the socialists themselves, especially with regard to political developments in their homeland, not to disputes between these men of the left and the ecclesiastical traditions they had left behind. The empirically challenging question of the scope of general SlovakAmerican indifference to and non-participation in formal religious life thus remained essentially unanswered. Regarding participation in secular campaigns to improve working conditions in industrial America, it is difficult to ascertain how many of these newcomers and their descendants supported the more inclusive labor movement, which in the USA was only partly socialist. However, it is known that Bell himself was a man of the Left, albeit not in a consistently outspoken way. How unrepresentative of SlovakAmericans he was in that regard is an interesting question, though one that necessarily lies beyond the scope of the present article. At any rate, in Out o_f This Furnace Bell presented the labor movement in a positive manner and highlighted the participation of at least a small number of Slovak-Americans in it. This is probably significant to an understanding of the dispersed treatment of religion in this fictional construction. 12 M. Mark Stolarik, Where Is My Home? Slovak Immigration to North America ( / 87020 10) (Bern : Peter Lang AG, Internati onal Academi c Publishers, 201 2), p. 205. 13 Stolarik, Wh ere Is My Home?, pp. 2 12-2 13. 58 SLOVAKIA 2021 A Little-known Literary A rtist Bell ' s earl y li fe endowed him with an intimate know ledge of hi s subj ect. His parents were fro m the village of Ni zny Tvarozec in the Bardejov d istri ct of the Presov reg ion of northwestern Slovaki a. He was born in the mill tow n of Braddock, Penn sylvani a, j ust east of Pi ttsburgh, in 1903 . 14 That small c ity had a popul ati on of 15,654 in 1900, a fig ure whi ch rose to sli ghtly over 20,000 two decades later before a persistent dec line reduced it to a poverty-stri cken village in the late twentieth century. His origi nal name was Ada lbert Thomas Belejcak, a cu mbersome moniker whi ch he never used during hi s career as a nove li st. Leav ing schoo l as an ado lescent, he worked loca ll y from age fifteen as an electri c ian' s apprenti ce but in 1922 re located to New York and was vari ously empl oyed fo r approximate ly a decade as a merchant sea man, boo kstore clerk , and mechani c. Bell 's first nove l, The Breed of Bas il, appeared in 1930, and from 1933 onward he was a fu ll -time writer, th ough onl y fi ve of hi s nove ls were issued. Hi s All Brides Are Beautiful was the bas is of a motion picture starrin g Joa n Fonta ine and Mark Stevens, and Till! Come Back to You was dramati zed and produced on Broadway by Jed Harri s. In other noteworthy d imensions of his career w ith the pen, Be ll contri buted short stori es to such magazi nes as McCall 's and Ladies ' Home J ournal, and eventuall y worked as a Holl ywood screenwriter. After mov ing to Cali fo rni a in 1955 , he continued to write sporadi ca ll y whil e operating the East Side Gift and Stati onery Shop in Santa Cruz. His hea lth deteri orated in the late 1950s, and he di ed of cancer in 196 1. The fun era l was held in a mortuary chapel rather than a church, and Bell 's ashes were interred at the crematory of the Independent Order of Odd Fell ows . 15 The few sources of readil y ava il able info rmation about hi s li fe do not suggest th at he had any ex perience in Slovaki a, and nothin g in Out of This Furnace indi cates that he had noteworthy know ledge of that coun try apart fro m what may have been handed down ora ll y from hi s fo rebears. Bell appears to have reli ed almost exc lusive ly on ora l traditi on and memories of hi s childhood in western Penn sy lvani a when craftin g thi s nove l. 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wikiff homas_ Bell_(nove list). Accessed 2 January 2020. For SC ovelist T homas Bell Set," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 17 January I 96 1, p. 12. 15 " Servi ces SLOVAKIA 2021 59 Ideologically, Bell stood unabashedly on the left flank of the American political spectrum. This comes to the fore more vividly in his credible proletarian novel of 1936, All Brides Are Beautiful, which was the basis of the motion picture From This Day Forward, which premiered in 1946. Set in New York during the Depression of the 1930s, its principal protagonist is an Irish-American named Peter Cummings who, like many of his fellow citizens, suffers from underemployment and discrimination in the labor market. He reads a new book of British origin, The Nature of Capitalist Crisis, by John Strachey, a Labour Party politician who, despite his bourgeois origins (his father edited the Conservative-supporting periodical The Spectator) and privileged education at Eton College and the University of Oxford , was a communist sympathizer before turning against Communism in 1940. The narrative is peppered with references to inter alia the Workers Bookshop and the newspaper Daily Worker, published in New York by the Communist Party of the United States of America. In response to a query by another character, Cummings confirms his suspected political sympathies but qualifies this by assuring her, "I ' m not a very good Communist." 16 In the general scholarly literature about American literature (in which works by many individuals about immigrant groups are relatively well represented), Bell remains almost completely invisible. Never did an article about him appear in the hundreds of volumes in the nearly exhaustive reference work Contemporary Authors. As of 2020, the seemingly very inclusive Dictionary of Literary Biography, well over 300 volumes strong, has not included an essay about Bell. Rarely is he even mentioned in general surveys of the wider subject. Anyone searching for information about this fairly productive writer' s life and oeuvre will be fortunate to reap even a meager harvest of information . Contemporary reviews of his novels are a partial exception to this generalization, but even they are not particularly abundant. Out of This Furnace is a constructed family epic, and not even the later stages of the saga, which overlap with its author' s life, are quite autobiographical. In his Afterword in the 1976 edition, Demarest relied heavily on information gleaned from Bell's younger brother, 16 Thomas Bell , All Brides Are Beautiful (Boston: Linle, Brown, and Company, 1936), 21 6. 60 SLOVAKIA 2021 Anthony, to highlight certain fictional departures from the ostensible facts of the Belejcak family history . Plot Summary Out of This Furnace is structured in four parts. The first deals principally with George (or "Djuro") Kracha, who leaves his Slovak peasant life (and, temporarily, his young and pregnant wife in the care of his mother) in the autumn of 1881. After giving birth to a son a few months later, she joins him in Pennsylvania. They eke out a basic existence as George finds employment in a steel mill but his upward mobility is limited to operating a temporarily profitable butcher shop. There is no moral progression in this character. After his wife dies, he marries a fellow Slovak who emigrated simultaneous ly with him, but this frequently inebriated and cognitively unimpressive man is jailed for beating her. The second and third parts relate in much detail the lives of his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Mike Dobrejcak. These members of the second-generation toil arduously but receive scant reward for their labors. However, they are confident that their son, Dobie, can enjoy a materially better life than they have, a conviction this quite Americanized lad shares. He fulfills their expectations to a great degree. Having received several years' schooling, he speaks Eng li sh fluently and uses his rhetorical talent to advocate workers ' rights. In the fourth part, Dobie also toils in mills but plays a crucial role in the unionization of the labor force regionally and ventures to Washington to participate in labor negotiations. To a vastly greater degree than his immigrant grandfather, Dobie embodies an altrui stic spirit. He is a considerate husband and parent who is concerned not merely about his own welfare but a lso that of his descendants and of the working class in general. All in all , the saga of this family through three generations relates much about the initially glacial but gradual and inconsistent rise of Slovak-Americans during decades when the spoils of the labor and entrepreneurial spirit that transformed the United States into a massive industrial power were so unevenly distributed. In doing so, Bell's novel sheds much light on social relationships within the ethnic group, the partial retention of ethnic culture, and other related matters. SLOVAKIA 2021 61 A Miscellany of Religious Motifs The narrative does not deal in nearly as much detail about the reli gious life of Slovak-Americans as historians of Christianity might wi sh. This theme plays second or third fiddle in an otherwise fairly well-deve loped fictional orchestration of immigrant hi story. How much Bell knew about that aspect of his family's story which forms the core of the construction is difficult to assess. According to his brother Anthony, who provided Demarest with information about the clan, their father was a very active layman " in the church and related organizations" whose involvement in them took him to meetings throughout Pennsylvania and in Ohio. 17 In one of the most didactic sections of Part Two, the narrator genera li zes about the characteristics of the ethnic group. " In the o ld country the Slovaks had been an oppressed minority from the beginning of time, a simple, religious, unwarlike people, a nation of peasants and shepherds whom the centuries had taught patience and humility," he declares, though without relating anything to substantiate this. "In America they were all this and more, foreigners in a strange land, ignorant of the land and customs, fearful of authority in whatever guise." 18 Churches exist in the depicted milieu, but much of the time they remain vague entities in the background. There is relatively little description of either individuals or Slovak-American families worshiping regularly or otherwise participating in ecc lesiastical life, and one finds only occasional hints of private religious devotion. (Certa in key exceptions are discussed below.) There are priests, of course, but one gets the impression that in Bell ' s fictional world some of the key characters interact with them only on special occasions, such as at weddings and funerals, or when they encounter a crisis and perceive a need for sacerdotal intervention . The first such instance occurs in the Old World. When Kracha elects to try his luck in America, he leaves his pregnant wife Elena in the care of his mother, an arrangement which proves inauspicious. The otherwise anonymous local priest who writes letters on behalf of these two presumably illiterate women informs Kracha that his a iling wife 17 18 Dav id P. Demarest, Jr. , " Afterword," in Bell , Ou! of This Furnace, 420. Bell , Ow of This Furnace, 123 . 62 SLOVAKIA 2021 and her mother-in-law are not fully compatible, especially when cohabiting in a one-room hut, and that he should do whatever is necessary to enable her relocation to America at the earliest opportunity. 19 Beyond that brief part, there is virtually nothing in Out of This Furnace about religious life in Slovakia. In the scattered comments about Slovak-American churches, one finds themes that reflect what one can read in nonfictional historical surveys. For example, new clusters of Slovak immigrants typically worshipped temporarily in the sanctuaries of non-Slovaks before founding their own parishes. Early in the narrative, a young Slovak immigrant couple have their nuptial mass in an Irish-American Roman Catholic church because there is not yet one of their own national heritage.20 When the number of Slovaks in individual locales increased to the point where they could organize their own parishes, they sometimes bought church edifices from Protestant congregations whose members were gradually moving to other communities. There are two occurrences of this in Out of This Furnace. In Braddock, Slovak Roman Catholics "took over" First Baptist Church and rededicated it as St. Michael's Church.2 1 Their ethnic fellows of Greek Catholi c loyalty followed suit shortly thereafter, purchasing what had been the First Presbyterian Church in an unappealing location a long the railroad tracks in the same small city. In its new denominational iteration, it had become St. Peter and St. Paul ' s. 22 Readers are not given nearly enough information about the ecclesiastica l life of the community to create a comprehensive portrait of that subject in general or the proportion of Slovaks who were active church members. There is no reason to believe that the dissolute Kracha is such an individual. On the other hand, after his sickly spouse Elena recovers sufficiently to leave the house, she begins to go to church every morning. However, this is described as the behavior of a mentally troubled soul who has largely withdrawn into herself, not as that of one with a normal socia l li fe . C lasping her rosary, Elena has " now more than ever a frightened , beaten look," perhaps owing to her 19 Bell , Bell , 21 Bell , 22 Bell , 20 0111 o( This Ou! of This Ou! of This 0111 of This Furnace, 14. Furnace, 19 . Furnace, 38. Furnace, 69. SLOVAKIA 2021 63 inability to adapt to her difficult life as Kracha's wife in a dismal mill town. 23 The phenomenon of non-involvement in organized community religious life is dealt with only fleetingly . The most explicit example of this stems from Bell's critique of capitalist exploitation of the steelworkers. Kracha's colleague Joe Dubik is introduced as "a Rusnak, a Greek Catholic from Tvarosc in Sarisa." 24 Having preceded Kracha to Braddock, he welcomes his friend when the latter arrives and shows him around the town. Passing the Carnegie public library (endowed by the philanthropy of the Scottish immigrant steel magnate Andrew Carnegie), Dubik admits that he had never entered it. " When do I have the time for such things?" he explains wistfully. "Since they cut wages and put us on twelve hours l've even stopped going to church." 25 But some continue to attend mass. One is Mike Dobrejcak , the long-suffering son-in-law of Kracha, who rarely finds joy in life and is trapped in his career as a steelworker. In a paragraph of several hundred words, the narrator provides moving insight into the spiritual constitution of this second-generation Slovak-American and the personal significance of his religious life. He prefers to attend the evening mass in the Greek Catholic Church. In contrast to high mass, where God seems to be "the thundering, awe-inspiring Lord of the Universe in vestments of white and gold," for after sunset the deity seems to be "a friend whom one dropped in to visit, God still but God at ease, His shoes and trousers showing below His robes." This approachable deity is one to whom Mike can pray for his wife Mary, their children, and him self. He can do so confident that God is superior to steel corporations and their general superintendents. Moreover, and perhaps just as important to Mike, the church in which this relationship unfolds is a social leveler. In its sanctuary " he was not a check number of a Hunky laborer, but a man." God, he believes, cared not a whit about socioeconomic differences or ethnic strata in American society: " Here he was welcome, here he belonged . Here he spoke in his own tongue; and without fear, without awkwardness, he spoke of himself, hi s hopes, hi s troubles, hi s need of help. And God heard him out." The God of the church, and especially of evening mass, " knew him by name, knew 23 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 64. Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 10. 25 Bell , Out a/This Furnace, 34. 24 64 SLOVAKIA 2021 about Mary and the children understood how it was with all of them and had a pretty good idea what kind of person, behind his laborer's clothes and poor English, Mike really was. God , in short, liked him ." The psychological impact is subtle but real; "The world was always a less unfriendly place and he nearly always walked a little straighter, heartened, protected, when he came out." 26 Nor is Mike alone. The narrator acknowledges that more pews are empty than filled, but the congregation includes inter alia old parishioners who attended mass daily and twice on Sunday. Far more prevalent in the throng are young couples who also appreciated the subdued sociability of a vespers service. It gave them "an irreproachable excuse to be together and was cheaper than a trip to Kennywood," explains the narrator. 27 No single factor, in other words, expla ins why Slovak-Americans participate in the worship of their churches . Bell ' s fictional construction of Slovak participation in the unsuccessful 1919 Great Steel Strike gave him an opportunity to explore a dimension of the ro le of religious factors in a matter of immense personal interest. Hi s sympathy with the goals of the strike, which took place while he was sti ll a teenager in Braddock, is manifest. Bell included a paragraph listing the union's demands, among them such minimal conditions as an eight-hour day, the right of workers to bargain collectively, and one day off every week. 28 Against this background, the support of the long-serving priest in Braddock, Father Kazincy, for the campaign is understandable. Indeed, he has urged parishioners to join the union , and he allows an organizing committee to meet in the basement of his church. When "veiled threats" are made by an unidentified party to foreclose on the parish's mortgage, Kazincy replies that if that is done he will place a sign on the front of the building announcing: "Thi s Church of Christ c losed by the United States Steel Corporation ." He further show s his so lidari ty after mass at St. Michael's on the Sunday morning immediately before the beginning of the strike when a state trooper orders people who congregate outside the building to disperse: "Father Kazincy came out of the church and protested, a tall , gray-haired man in priestly robes standing 26 Bell , Out of This Furnace, 17 1. Bell, Out of This Furnace, 170. Launched in 1899 in West Miffin. southeast of Pittsburgh, Kenn ywood was an amusement park and picnic area th at attracted large numbers of workin g-cl ass people. 28 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 240. 27 SLOVAKIA 2021 65 beside the trooper's restless horse, his face uplifted, alight with indignation." 29 This sympathy-inspiring partisanship is juxtaposed with less appealing conduct on the part of the Irish-dominated Roman Catholic Church . At its St. Brendan's Church " in the ' good ' part of town", the priest declares in his homily, "This strike is not being brought about by intelligent English-speaking workmen ... . You can't reason with these people. Don't reason with them." The appropriate response, he preached, was to "knock them down!" In Bell ' s narrative, this hostility meshed with the response of the diocesan hierarchy to the strike. A delegation of Catholic strikers call on the bishop of Pittsburgh (whom Bell calls "Bishop Canavan" but in fact was Regis Canevin from 1904 until 1921) imploring him to support the action, not least because a majority of the strikers are Catholics. But that prelate declines to do so. Underscoring the influence of the industrial magnates on religious life, "not long after that the Pittsburgh Catholic Charities received a check for twenty-five thousand dollars from the Carnegie Steel Company."30 An Atheist to the End Too little is known , and perhaps cannot be known , about Bell ' s low-profile life to trace whatever spiritual journey he may have had followed through his fifty-seven years. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the skepticism expressed in Out of This Furnace foreshadowed acknowledged atheism in his final book, In the Midst of life. This nonfictional volume, approximately 270 pages in length, was published a few months after his death in 1961 . It encompasses a miscellany of his thoughts and musings as a terminally ill cancer patient in Santa Cruz. Bell acknowledged in his first brief chapter that he was not on the same spiritual wavelength with many other people. "While others, in the old phrase, make their peace with God," he stated, "I must make mine with myself." 31 Bell noted that his beliefs differed markedly from those of one of his pious customers, a Mrs. Worth, who had sought to 29 Bell, Out of This Furnace, 241 . Out of This Furnace, 241 -2. 3 1Thomas Bell , In the Mid1·t a/Life (New York: Atheneum, 196 1), 5. 30 Bell, 66 SLOVAKIA 2021 encourage him at that critical stage of his life. He had even prayed to " Mrs. Worth 's God" in the privacy of a toilet at a hospital in Palo Alto, but his cancer had progressed unabated. Bell concluded that "belief in a supernatural god may disappear, and a good thing too," but in the same sentence he admitted that there were times "when one can only envy such people as Mrs. Worth. " 32 If his non credo of ca. 1960 represented his attitude towards the Christian faith two decades earlier, his willingness to write sympathetically, albeit briefly, about the religious life of his fictional characters at that time is all the more remarkable. Conclusion A juxtaposition of Out of This Furnace and the nonfictional texts cited in the present article highlights several problems that serious historians of religion encounter when they are seeking to gauge, even in an approximate way, the spiritual life of Slovak immigrants in North America. On the one hand, there are assertions about the group's devotion to Christianity in several of its denominational forms. These assurances are typically supported by reference to the hundreds of churches which Slovaks founded in the New World, usually in the early stages of their community life in surroundings still only partially familiar to them, and in many instances after unsatisfactory experiences in multi-ethnic parishes. On the other hand, when one reads Out of This Furnace as almost certainly the principal fictional reconstruction of Slovak-American history, one finds significantly less about religion than nonfictional literature might reasonably lead one to expect. Considered in isolation, Out a/This Furnace thus gives an impression that is difficult to harmoni ze with the large number of enduring Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and other sorts of parishes which these immigrants founded to serve as their spiritual homes. No doubt part of the answer inheres in accepting the fact that Slovak-Americans were by no means a monolithic entity, but a diverse segment of the Euro-American population which probably always included individuals with varying degrees of religious fervor and criticism thereof, different levels of moral development, and no uniformity of commitment to community life. Gauging the percentage of people 32 Bell, In the Mid1·1 a/Life, 8-9. SLOVAKIA 2021 67 in any historic ethnic group who chose to affiliate with its religious institutions can be prohibitively difficult. Any calculations done in this regard would probably be estimates rather than precise statistics. Furthermore, such figures do not address the underlying problems of assessing personal commitment and spiritual life as opposed to nominal membership. Other dimensions of the phenomenon bedevil quantification . Historians must look carefully at how the character of their subject evolves over time. In this case, they would be compelled to examine, for instance, the religious commitment of the displaced people who formed the first generation in America and then their at least partly assimilated, Anglophone descendants. Did interest in ecclesiastical life vary diachronically? Was it consistent in large cities and small mill towns? Did it appear to be more vibrant in areas where the Slovaks constituted a relatively large percentage of the population than in those areas where they were but a small minority? Were married men more inclined than bachelors to participate in organized religious life? These and related questions are by no means limited to Slovaks or other Eastern and Central Europeans in North America and their descendants but are relevant to much of the ethnic panorama. A broad consideration of this obviously lies beyond the bounds of the present study, but two quite different kinds of examples illustrate the point. One stems from the present writer's extensive, multidenominational research on the history of the approximately 800,000 Norwegians who emigrated to the United States. Most of them were at least nominal members of the established Evangelical Lutheran Church in their homeland, although levels of participation in its sacraments, services, and so on varied greatly from region to region. Numerous " revival" movements, some of them led by lay preachers, had reinvigorated the spiritual life of the nation. Nonconformist denominations also sprouted in the nineteenth century, giving especially those Norwegians who lived in coastal towns some measure of churches from which to choose. At the same time, however, anticlerical critics emerged, sometimes in tandem with an incipient labor movement. After reaching the United States, large numbers of these Nordic newcomers formed many hundreds of Lutheran churches, chiefly in the Upper Midwest, with smaller numbers in other regions. They also founded several church-related undergraduate colleges, most of which continue to thrive in the twenty-first century, and several theological 68 SLOVAKIA 2021 seminaries for training new generations of pastors. All in all , denominational membership statistics clearly indicate that a higher percentage of Norwegian immigrants than their Swedish and Danish counterparts, to cite the most meaningful comparisons, were affiliated with what can be regarded as their birthright religious institutions. However, as I have demonstrated, this involvement varied immensely, and overall only about 30 percent of first-generation Norwegian-Americans became members of the ethnic Lutheran churches in which one might expect to find them .33 The evidence disconfirmed sweeping generalizations that historians of immigration had made for approximately two generations about the supposedly lofty level of religious loyalty among newcomers from Norway. Turning to a significantly different kind of example, in 1964 Rudolph J. Vecoli strongly challenged the generalized portrayal of immigrants in America which Oscar Handlin had presented in his Pulitzer Prize-winning popular history, The Uprooted, twelve years earlier. Writing about the tens of thousands of contadini (i.e. peasants) from southern Italy who had settled in Chicago, Vecoli declared that the noted Harvard historian 's theory that the process of adjusting to life on American shores had strengthened their religious li fe in an ali en environment. Not so, this Italian-American argued. "American priests were scandali zed by the indifference of the Italians to the Church . Even when Italian churches were provided by the Catholic hierarchy, the contadini seldom displayed any religious enthusiasm ." 34 Within the Slavic-American spectrum, the extent of Slovak detachment from organized religious life awaits detailed ana lysis. In 2005 sociologist Paul Froese published an article about the significantly differing levels of involvement in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in recent decades. He attributed the higher degree among Slovaks to a historically different relationship between religion and nationalism . " In Slovakia," he concluded, "Roman Catholi cism and nationalism are conjoined in much the same way as they are in Poland." One consequence of thi s is greater loya lty to the Roman Catholi c 33 Frederi ck Ha le, No rwegian Religious Pluralism: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992). 34 Rudo lph J. Vecoli , "Contadini in Chi cago: A Critique of The Uprooted." The Journal of American History LI , no. 3 ( December 1964): 415. SLOVAKIA 2021 69 Church in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.35 Froese did not, however, deal at all with the history of religious life among Slovaks who had been transplanted to a different environment in North America. Establishing the defensible perimeter of descriptions of SlovakAmerican religious life thus remains a difficult task, one which would have to take into account not only formal religious involvement and activity but also the extent to which an as yet indeterminate number of people chose not to become affiliated or who were directly critical of Christianity and its institutions. Moreover, the historical calculus would have to take into account changes over time. Out of This Furnace offers a stimulating if obviously truncated impression of Slovak religious life during the first few crucial decades of this group's history in industrial America. Indeed, when one considers Bell's personal separation from that important dimension of his ethnic heritage, it is arguably surprising how many aspects of it appear in this novel. One finds observations about inter a/ia priestly ministry, interaction with non-Slovak churches, efforts to raise children according to traditional religious values, prayer, community worship, and the relationship between religious institutions and the labor movement. To be sure, there is silence about significant historical matters, such as the Lutheran and other Protestant churches among Slovak immigrants. Far too little about these topics has been published in any genre. Will future litterateurs take up their pens and construct engaging fictional accounts that tell readers far more about the spiritual life of the group, thereby further enriching the colorful tapestry of ethnic historical fiction? To be sure, no amount of meticulous research could replace Bell ' s first-hand knowledge of Slovak immigrant life in Braddock, but many historical novelists have crafted credible works about topics which they did not experience. While we might be ill-advised to hold our breath, we can find comfort in Alexander Pope ' s oft-quoted words, " Hope springs eternal in the human breast." 35 Paul Froese, "Secular Czechs and Devout Slova ks: Ex ploring Religious Differences," Review of Religious Research XL VI , no. 3 (March 2005): 269, 280.  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 Reconsidering Slovak-American Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell's Out of this Furnace in Historiographical Context Description An account of the resource Frederick Hale Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 53-69 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hale, Frederick, 1948- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7477e5a1a94b14d12344c3c38915c93f.pdf 4fae2823cf5ff5e42d36e0e20e1e2faf PDF Text Text 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. �SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. �94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 �SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. �96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the �98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 �SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. �100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 �SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. �102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. �104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 �SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. �106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 �SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 �108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. �SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 �110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 �SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. �112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. �SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 �114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 �SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . �116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 �SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. �118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. �SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." �120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance. � 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. �SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. �94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 �SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. �96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the �98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 �SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. �100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 �SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. �102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. �104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 �SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. �106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 �SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 �108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. �SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 �110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 �SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. �112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. �SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 �114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 �SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . �116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 �SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. �118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. �SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." �120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance. � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. 94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. 96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the 98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. 100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. 102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. 104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. 106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. 112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . 116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. 118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." 120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance.  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 Picturing a Nation: Slovak Documentary Film from its Birth Until 1950 Description An account of the resource Nicholas Hudáč Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 92-120 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hudáč, Nicholas Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8c532810a94976495b9931f97ec22776.pdf d3414a49ae71d586201a59257f6dbe41 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 �8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. �SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. �SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. �SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . �12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . �SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 �14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. �SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. �16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. �SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 �18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 �20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. �SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. �22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. �SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. �24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. �26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 . � SLOVAKIA 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 �8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. �SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. �SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. �SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . �12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . �SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 �14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. �SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. �16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. �SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 �18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 �20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. �SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. �22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. �SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. �24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. �26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 . � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . 12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. 16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. 22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. 24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. 26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 .  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 Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880-1919): The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Description An account of the resource Michal Kšiňan Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 7-26 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kšiňan, Michal, 1983- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d08701c8de6e3c1ea34737b7b5cef77e.pdf 2c4af5a0cc090f418b94aeb049bd6779 PDF Text Text 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. �72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter �SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. �74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. �SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . �76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. �SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . �78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. �SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. �80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. �SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. �82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head �SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek �84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. �86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. �SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. �88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. �90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. �SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future . � 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. �72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter �SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. �74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. �SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . �76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. �SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . �78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. �SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. �80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. �SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. �82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head �SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek �84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. �86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. �SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. �88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. �90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. �SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future . � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. 72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. 74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . 76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . 78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. 80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. 82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek 84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. 86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. 88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. 90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future .  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 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovakia in the Turmoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Description An account of the resource Roman Ličko Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 70-91 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ličko, Roman Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/332785cff4f265ad3c4c359600dd8581.pdf 590394fa1a9f7d2f25e394b700d2c443 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 121 "THE RUSSIANS ARE INVADING US!" PRESOV, 1968 M. Mark Stolarik In 1968 Anne and Mark Stolarik experienced two unforgettable events in their lives- they were married and later witnessed the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Not many people can brag that their honeymoon was interrupted by Russian tanks! Meanwhile, they also experienced many culture shocks, as they toured Slovakia for the first time. For the newlyweds the summer of 1968 started quite auspiciously. On June 15, over 400 guests appeared at the wedding of Mark Stolarik and Anne fvanco in Oshawa, Ontario, the automobile capital of Canada. The ceremony was held in the packed Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Ritson Road, and was presided over by the Reverend Stefan Adamiak. 1 Afterwards the guests walked to the nearby Slovak Hall ,2 ate a many-course meal in the basement and then proceeded upstairs where the dancing and drinking began . As was typical of Slovak weddings, two men got into a fight and were ejected by the bride 's father. By I 0:00 p.m. a crisis arose- there was no more liquor! Jan Jvanco, the bride 's father, quickly rounded up all of his friends, explained the situation, and they raced home to empty their liquor cabinets in order to keep the celebration going into the wee hours of the morning. After the tearful bridal dance at midnight, during which Mark was ejected from the building, Jan lvanco and his new son-in-law met in a back room and counted up all the monetary donations received, either during the wedding, or during the bridal dance. They totaled $4,000, which was more than enough to cover all of their planned-for honeymoon expenses to Europe, and their research-trip to Slovakia. At that time Mark was a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota, where he was studying 1 For the history of this parish see "S lovak Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada" (Xerox copy, Oshawa, 2002) . A copy can be found in the Slovak Arc hi ves, Arc hives and Special Collections, Unive rsity of Ottawa. 2 For a photo of this hall, see the front cover of Polyphony : The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario 2, No. I (Winter, 1979). �122 SLOVAKIA 2021 under the direction of Timothy L. Smith, who had recently founded the Immigrant Archives at the University. 3 As one of Smith's Research Assistants, Mark 's duties consisted of collecting archival materials in American and Canadian cities pertaining to Slovak immigration to North America and then writing his dissertation based upon these materials. The day after their wedding Mark and Anne fl ew from Toronto to Minneapolis and from there by a special charter plane for uni versity students to Paris. After touring Paris with student colleagues from the University of Minnesota, Mark and Anne took a train to Stuttgart, Germany, where they picked up a brand-new Volkswagen " Beetle" which Mark had purchased for $1,300. With their new car they drove to Munich and Salzburg, where they visited with friend s and then proceeded to Vienna. In this ancient capital of the former Habsburg Empire, which they first toured, they applied for and received visas from the Czechoslovak Consulate to visit the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. After a picturesque drive from Vienna through the towns of Hainburg and Wolfstahl, the newlyweds approached the Czechoslovak border. They could see the Little Carpathians looming in the di stance, and Bratislava castle overlooking the city. As they approached the border, they noticed that they were the only car entering the Republic. A lonely soldier, with a sub-machine gun slung over his back, lifted a heavy cantilevered iron gate, which opened only inwards, and allowed them in . Thereupon two surprised customs officers emerged from a little building off to the side and, under a covered roof asked the travelers for their passports and visas. 3 For the history of the Immigrant Archives, later renamed the Immigration History Research Center, see my " Building Ethnic Arch ives in the United States and Canada since the I 960 's," in Dominique Daniel and Amalia Levi eds., Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the U.S. and Canada (Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books, 20 13), 59-6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 123 Petrfalka border crossing from Austria, 1993 . In 1968 there were no signs at this crossing except the large letters that read " Bratislava." Fortunately, Timothy Smith had arranged for Dr. 1:udovit Holotik, the Director of the Historical [nstitute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, to issue them, as we ll as his entire team of researchers, an official invitation, which made the granting of visas by the Czechoslovak authorities that much easier. After a two-hour wait at the border, while the customs officers awaited a telephone call from Prague confirming their visas as legitimate, the couple was cleared for entrance into the Republic. Before they departed they changed some American dollars for Czechoslovak crowns, because it was noon and their stomachs were growling. Because they had an official invitation , they did not have to exchange $12.00 (U.S.) for Czechoslovak crowns for each day of their stay at the official (and unrealistic) rate of seven crowns for a �124 SLOVAKIA 2021 dollar. The real (black market) rate of exchange was 35 crowns for a dollar. Once they had cleared customs, the two visitors proceeded in their little green Volkswagen along a narrow two-lane road towards the town of Petrzalka, a suburb of Bratislava. They noticed that the road was raised higher than the nearby empty fields , and soon they passed a tall guard-tower, with two more armed soldiers watching them. rt was clear that they had just passed through the "Iron Curtain" which separated the communist East from the democratic West. After the pair had crossed the "Stary most" (Old Bridge) across the Danube River from Petrzalka to Bratislava, and drove along Sturova Street into the heart of the city, they were disappointed by what they saw. The buildings were old and grey, with the plaster falling off. What a contrast with modem, clean and dynamic Vienna! The pedestrians were dressed in what looked like I 940's clothing. It seemed to the visitors that they had entered into the "Third World." As they drove along, they looked in vain for a sign that would advertise a restaurant. When the pair drove their Volkswagen up the hill through the Square of the Slovak National Uprising, past the Church of the Holy Trinity, they noticed a large sign at its base that read "Sovietska kniha" (Soviet Bookstore), which again reminded them that they were in the communist East. Finally, as they emerged into what is now known as " Hodo:fovo namestie" (Hodza Square), the hungry couple spied a sign on the left that read "Restauracia Stefanka." Elated, they parked their car on a side road and entered the restaurant with great anticipation. A friendly waiter in a tuxedo greeted them and sat them beside a window overlooking the square. He explained that the Stefanka did not provide individual service, but they could help themselves at the buffet table. Mark and Anne were delighted to see little open-faced sandwiches, with all sorts of delicacies on them, awaiting their hungry stomachs. They ate to their heart's content. Meanwhile, they noticed that the clientele consisted mostly of older gentlemen and young women. They made nothing of it. A little later, whi le visiting Mark 's cousin Jozef Mazur in nearby Trnava, Jozef asked the couple for their first impressions of Slovakia. When they recounted their lunch at the Stefanka, Jozef burst into laughter. When Mark inquired as to what was so funny, Jozef replied, "Don't you know what the Stefanka is?" To which Mark replied , "no," to which Jozef added, "The Stefanka is �SLOVAKIA 2021 125 notorious in Bratislava as the place where you go if you want to pick up a prostitute! " Upon reflection, Mark and Anne understood why they had seen so many older gentlemen and younger women at the Stefanka. They had a good laugh! After lunch on their first day in Slovakia, Mark and Anne proceeded to the offices of the Historicky ustav SAV (Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) on Klemensova Street. Here a sheepish Dr. L:udovit Holotik welcomed them and explained that he was leaving shortly on a research trip to England . He failed to mention that he had just been fired as Director of the Institute, because in the l 950 ' s he had written a defamatory book about the Slovak national hero, General Milan R. Stefanik. During the liberali z ing " Dubcek era",4 such books were frowned upon and Holotik was attacked in the now-free press.5 Holotik then introduced Mark to his successor, Dr. Julius Mesaros. The latter was initially skeptical of Mark ' s motives, but when Mark explained that he was a student of Timothy Smith, and part of a team of researchers who were coming to Slovakia to study the emigration of various ethnic groups from the former Kingdom of Hungary, Mesaros mellowed. He offered Mark and Anne some Turkish coffee, made by his secretary, which consisted of one-third coffeegrounds and two-thirds thick, dark, coffee in a demi-tasse. The Canadian couple had never before seen or tasted such coffee and slowly sipped it in order not to insult their host. Mark and Anne were raised on "cafe au lait". Apparently, the Russians had introduced "Turkish coffee" to the Eastern Bloc. After this introduction, Mesaros brought to Mark dozens of articles and books written by himself and his colleagues at the Hi storical Institute on the social history of 19 th century Slovakia.6 Once he had read them, Mark would have a good back- 4 For the Dubce k era , popularl y kn own as the " Prague Spring," see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion of Czechoslovakia, / 968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Sto larik (Munde lein, IL : Bo lchazy-Carducc i, 20 I 0). 1..:udovit Holotik, Stefa nikovska legenda a vznik CSR (Brati slava: Slove nska academia vied. 1958); fo r th e attacks upon Holot ik see Jan Ml ynarik , " Hi stori ci v Enckylopedii Slovenska- bilanci a neostalinskeho kadrovani a (Studia k slovenskej histori ografii )" Premeny 25 (4, 1988), 147-8. 6 Mesaros's most important publication was Rolnicka a narodnostna otazka na Slovensku, 1848-1900; k problematikef eudalnych prei itkov (Bratislava : Slovenska academia vi ed, 1959). 5 �126 SLOVAKIA 2021 ground understanding of the archival sources which he would subsequently find in various Slovak state archives. After having spent their first night in the nearby Hotel Krym, Mark and Anne proceeded to the headquarters of the Slovak State Archives on the " Ulica obrancov mieru" (Street of the Defenders of Peace; today 's Stefanikova Street). There they met and befriended Dr. Frantisek Bielik, one of the archivists who was interested in the topic of Slovak immigration .7 He subsequently introduced the couple to Deputy Director Jozef Mazur who, it turned out, was Mark 's long-lost cousin on his mother's side. They had a joyful reunion during which Jozef Mazur showed Mark photos of himself visiting with Mark 's family in Turciansky Svaty Martin during the Second World War. Jozef then wrote Mark an official letter of introduction to all the Slovak State Archives scattered across the country, in which Jozef instructed the local archivists to help Mark in finding material s on Slovak emigration to North America. For the next two weeks Frantisek Bielik found such materials for Mark in the Bratislava State Archives. While Mark and Anne stayed at the nearby inexpensive Hotel Tatra, which was full of Russians, they had a curious experience. Every morning when they ate breakfast in the hotel 's dining room, they ordered the same things- ham and eggs with rolls and coffee. The total bill was always 28 crowns, which they rounded up to 30, much to the deli ght of their middle-aged waiter, who collected the money on the spot. They were not used to waiters doing this, because in North America waiters or waitresses usually submitted a bill , and the customers paid through a cashier, who controlled the amount requested and paid. One day, the middle-aged waiter took the day off and was replaced by a much younger colleague. Mark and Anne ordered the same breakfast, but the new waiter charged them 48 crowns! Not wishing to create a scene, they paid the 48 crowns and left. The next day, when the middle-aged waiter returned, they showed him the previous day's breakfast bill. He was furiou s, he apologized, did not charge them for their breakfast, and vowed that his younger colleague would never again repl ace him . Mark and Anne wondered how often waiters in 7 While Bielik started hi s career at the Slovak State Archives, he later switched to the Institute for Slovaks Abroad of the Matica slovenska and published, amon g many others things, the four- volume compendium of documents on Slovak immigrati on entitled Slovenske vystahovalectvo. Dokumenty / -4 (Bratislava: Slovenska academ ia vied, 1969- 1985). �SLOVAKIA 2021 127 Slovakia (and elsewhere in Europe) cheated their customers in this way. After their stay in Bratislava, Mark and Anne drove north to the city of Trnava, to do research in the archives of the Spolok Sv. Yojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert). They stayed with the family of Jozef Mazur, who introduced Mark to the Director of the Spolok, Msgr. Jan Postenyi . The latter was delighted to meet Mark, because Postenyi had been on a tour of the USA in 193 7, and had since not met with any American Slovaks. He gladly opened his rich archive to Mark, where the latter discovered many documents pertaining to the history of the Slovak League of America during and after World War I. These included a carbon-copy of the 1915 Cleveland Agreement. 8 After a week's stay in Trnava, Mark and Anne set out for northern Slovakia, where they met additional members of their family. In Cadca they stayed with Mark 's uncle Jozef Stolarik, who took Mark to see his grandmother Anna Stolarikova and her daughter Terezia Bosakova in the hilly settlement of Dlha, near the city of Turzovka. Anna had not seen her grandson since his Christening in 1943 . Since Anna was illiterate, she wondered how Mark had managed to find her. Mark took out a road map of Europe and showed her the roads they had driven from Stuttgart to Slovakia, but it was hard for her to comprehend what he was showing. Mark, meanwhile, was amused that she was wearing black Converse sneakers. Uncle Jozef explained that it was easier for her to climb up the hill to her house in sneakers than in leather shoes. There was no road up the hill from the one below. After having visited two more aunts and their families, in midJuly, Mark and Anne set out for the city of Martin, Mark's birthplace. While driving between the city of Zilina and the ruins of castle Strecno, Mark and Anne suddenly spotted a long column of Russian military vehicles parked on the old road beside the new one. They were engaged in war games called "operation Sumava" in order to intimidate the Czechoslovak government into stopping the transformation of Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," as the first Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, 8 For the history of the Spolok Sv. Vojtecha see Stefan Hanakovic, Dejiny Spolku sviiteho Vojtecha (Trnava : Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 2005), especia ll y pages 281-84 for Postenyi ' s trip to America. The Cleve land Agreement can be found in the Archiv Spolku Svateho Vojtecha, Politika, fasc. 235 , fol. A. c.2 �128 SLOVAKIA 2021 Alexander Dubcek, put it. As he made clear in hi s memo irs, he and hi s followers were trying to turn communist Czechoslovakia into a Social Democratic Czechoslovakia.9 His colleagues in the Warsaw Pact, particularly Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka and East German leader Walter Ulbricht, vehemently disapproved of the path of the so-called Prague Spring, and "operation Sumava" was a prelude to the later in vas ion of Czechoslovakia. 10 Meanwhile, when Mark saw these Soviet military veh icles, he instantly shouted at Anne to start photographing them , because he was driving and was afraid to stop the car, lest the Russians arrest him. A terrified Anne grabbed hi s 35mi llimeter camera and took several color slides of these vehicles. Russ ian military vehicles parked on the old road between Z ilina and Strecno in northern Slovakia, Jul y, 1968 9 Hope Dies Last: The Autohiography of Alexander Dubcek, ed. and trans. by Jiri Hochman (New York: Kodansha International, 1993), 277. 10 For the views of Brezhnev, Gomulka and Ulbricht, see the chapters by Mikhail Latysh, Lukasz Kaminski and Riidi ger Wenzke in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion, 1-18, 95- 128 and 137-64. �SLOVAKIA 2021 129 Russian "Katyusha" rocket launchers on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July, 1969. Russian ambulance and military vehicles on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July 1968. After this harrowing experience, Mark and Anne kept driving around the Strecno pass until they reached the city of Martin. Here �130 SLOVAKIA 2021 they met Uncle Rudolf and hi s family and stayed with them for a week while Mark worked in the Literary Archive of the Matica slovenska. Here he met Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the Slovak National Library of the Matica slovenska. The two of them agreed upon an exchange of books and other materials in the future , a promise which is still in effect. While in Martin, at the urging of Frantisek (Ferko) Bielik, Mark attended the 6th Congress of the Slovak Historical Society, where he heard Dr. Lubomir Liptak 's attack upon the "deformation" of Slovak hi story by Marxist hi storian s in the previous decades. 11 He also heard Prof. Milos Gosiorovsky' s plea for the federation of Czechoslovakia based upon the Cleveland Agreement of 1915. 12 Mark was amused by Ferko Bielik 's antics at this Congress- he lifted hi s hand in approval of various motions made, whi le shaking hi s head sideways in disapproval. He explained that the conference organizers only counted the raised hands, not the heads shaking sideways. This was a small gesture of disapproval of the conference proceedings. After their stay in Martin, at the beginning of August, the newlyweds set out for the city of Presov, to do research in the archives of the former county of Saris, from where the first immigrants had left for America. 13 In Presov they met and stayed with Anne's uncle Andrej Krasnay in the Sid lisko Dukelskych hrdinov (the Apartment Complex of the Heroes of the Duk la Pass). Shortly after their arrival , Andrej took Mark and Anne to visit her grandmother in her vi ll age for the first time, as well as other aunts and uncles. At Andrej 's condo Mark and Anne had to get used to the socialist way of life. For instance, sometimes the water flowed from the faucets in Andrej's apartment, sometimes not. Therefore, Andrej kept his tub full of water, so that he would not run out. Sometimes the water was hot. Sometimes it was not. Whenever the water flowed hot, Andrej called the couple to immediately take a bath. And, even though Presov had street li ghts, they were not turned on at night, in order to conserve electricity. When Mark went to do research in the Slovak State Archives in Presov, which was located on the Main Square, right beside the church of St. Nicholas, he had some interesting experiences. When he met 11 Cubomir Liptak, "U loha a postavenie historiografie v nasej spolocnosti, Hisloricky casopi.1· XVII , c. l , 1969, 98- 11 7. 12 Milos Gosiorovsky, "Slovaci za prvej svetovej vojny," in Slovaci a ich narodnv v;ivin, ed. Oto Takac (Brati slava: Slovenska academ ia vied, I969), 29 1-305 . 13 Slovak State Archives in Presov, county Saris, podzupan, 9809, VB, 1879. �SLOVAK.IA 2021 131 Andrej Lukac, the Director of the Archive, the latter was cool to Mark's visit. He claimed that the material Mark was searching for was not yet processed and suggested that Mark return sometime in the future, when it would become available. Mark then asked if Lukac knew Jozef Mazur, to which Lukac replied, "Hej , onje moj set1'' (Of course! He's my boss.) To which Mark replied, "Hej, on je moj bratranec." (Of course! He's my cousin.) As soon as Lukac heard Mark ' s reply, he jumped into action. Lukac suggested that, since Mark could not read Magyar, and most of the documents were in that language, he hire a translator. Mark agreed and the next day Lukac introduced Mark to Mr. Grant. The latter was the descendant of a Scottish soldier who had remained in Central Europe in the 17 th century. Mr. Grant was in his 80's, he had been educated in the old Austria-Hungary, and knew Slovak, Magyar, German and Latin. He was overly polite, as such gentlemen were trained to be and, whenever he found an interesting document to translate, he would say "No, prosim Vas pekne," which means "Now, if you please," and then would proceed to translate. Lukac suggested that Mark pay Mr. Grant I 00 crowns per day, which was the going rate for such services. Mark agreed, since on the black market that would come to only $3.00 (US) a day. Mr. Grant was so intelligent that, after he had translated some documents, he grasped what Mark was looking for, and then did his translating without any more superv1s1on. Mark and Anne also did research in Kosice. Once they had exhausted their sources in Presov, they drove south to Kosice, to work in the fonner archives of Abov and Zemplin counties, which were housed in the former Abov county headquarters on Orlia Street, one block from the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth. As they drove into Kosice and approached the main square, they noticed and photographed a bust of General Milan R. Stefanik on a pedestal that was obviously erected spontaneously and hurriedly by some local patriots on the exact spot where a much larger statue of Stefanik had been erected in the l 920's. The statue was removed by communist authorities in the I 950's. (See the photo on page 133) This bust testified to the rise of Slovak nationalism during the Dubcek era. At the Slovak State Archives in Kosice Mark and Anne �132 SLOVAKIA 2021 were welcomed by the Director, Ladislav Andrasi and his assistant, Anna Fedorjakova. The latter willingly and eagerly helped Mark to translate documents from Magyar into Slovak. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne were joined by Professor Timothy Smith and another one of his graduate students, Oksana Dragan, who had both just come down from Poland in Smith's brown Volkswagen. Smith was studying Slovak Lutheran immigration from eastern Slovakia while Oksana was researching Rusyn (Ukrainian) immigration to North America. Smith then suggested to Mark that he a lso consult the Roman Catholic bishop's archives, located on Lenin Street, opposite the Cathedral. Since Anne had studied Latin for five years in High School, she volunteered to do this and was assisted by the Rev. Alojs Tkac, who was in charge of the archives. After the collapse of Communism, the latter was e levated to the post of Bishop, and later, Archbishop of Kosice. 14 Meanwhile, Professor Smith arranged a meeting with an "Action Committee" of the newly-resurrected Greek Catholic Church, led by Msgr. Jan Hirka, who, once Communism collapsed, was e levated to Eparch (Bishop) of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Presov. 15 On the evening of August 20, 1968, Mark and Anne, together with Timothy Smith and Oksana Dragan, decided to dine together. They went to the Magyar Restaurant in Kosice , where they enjoyed an exotic meal and did some dancing to the tunes of a Gypsy (Roma) orchestra. 14 Alojz Tkac was persecuted by the Communi sts durin g the period of "Normalization" ( 1970- 1989) and penned hi s memoirs in Pohl'adv z kriiovatky (Kapusany: Bens, 2004). 15 For the hi story of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia from 1968 to 1980, see Martin Lupco, "Grec kokatolick a a pravoslavna cirkev na Slovensku v rokoch 19681980," in Jaroslav Corani c- Jana Koprivnakova- Peter Sturak eds. Grekokatolicka cirkev na Slovensku vo svetle vyroci II (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 2012), 165-77. Msgr. Jan H irka published hi s memoirs in Pod ochranou Marie: Pastier v zlui be cirkvi (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 20 13 ). �SLOVAKIA 2021 133 Bust of General M.R. Stefanik on the main square, Kosice, August, 1968. �134 SLOVAKIA 2021 Around 11 :00 p.m. all four researchers decided to drive back to their abodes in Presov. As Mark and Anne drove through the village of Drienov, just north of Kosice, a black cat ran in front of their car. Although they did not kill it, Mark wondered aloud if it signaled that they would have bad luck. "I hope not," Anne answered. Around 4:30 a.m. on August 21 , Mark and Anne were awakened by a very loud noise coming from the streets of Presov. At first they thought that it was the sound of jackhammers, and Mark began to curse the workers who could not wait until 8:00 a.m. to repair the streets. Then they heard a knocking on the door to the apartment. Andrej Krasnay gingerly approached the door and asked, "who ' s there?" Mark and Anne were afraid that the Secret Police had come for them, because they always came at night. Instead, it was the next-doorneighbor. He told Andrej something and Andrej then knocked on Mark and Anne's glass door, came in and announced that "The Russians, Poles, East Germans, Magyars and Bulgarians are occupying us!" 16 All three then understood that the noise from the street was not from jackhammers, but from tanks. Dazed, Mark and Anne decided to immediately dress and repair to the Hotel Dukla, where Professor Smith and Oksana Dragan were staying. It was sunrise by the time they arrived and Smith had just arisen. Mark knocked on his door and as Smith opened it, Mark blurted out "the Russians are invading us." Smith looked out his window at the tanks and remarked that he thought it was military maneuvers again . Mark assured him that it was not, that this was a real invasion . Smith then suggested that Mark go find Anne, who had gone upstairs to inform Oksana of the invasion , to come down to the dining room to discuss the situation. The four researchers, along with a young and lonely waiter, were the only customers in the dining room. While Smith ate a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and rolls , the three students were too frightened to eat. Smith nonchalantly remarked, " We ' re Americans. This doesn ' t concern us." He cou ldn 't have been more wrong. Mark was born in Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1943 and Oksana in Berlin in 1942. Oksana was the daughter of the editor of the 16 The East Germans did not parti cipate in the invasion . For a detailed ex planati on sec Rildi gcr Wcnzkc, "The Rol e and Acti vities of the SEO, the East German State and Its Military During th e ' Prague Spring' of 1968," in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion, 137-64. �SLOVAKIA 2021 135 pro-independence Ukrainian weekly Svoboda, published in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both were post-war refugees who, with their families, had ended up in Canada and the USA after the war. Neither the Soviet Union, nor Czechoslovakia, recognized dual citizenship at that time. Either one of these students could be detained by the authorities, whether Czechoslovak or Russian . Smith, however, was so unconcerned about the invasion that he decided that all four researchers should carry on as if nothing had happened. Thus, he instructed Mark and Oksana to go to the state archives and continue with their research. Meanwhile, he took Anne with him to serve as a translator in the Presov city archives. When Smith met with the Mayor of Presov, who was clearly shattered by the invasion, Smith asked for permission to do research in the city archives. The Mayor replied, with Anne translating, that "due to the extraordinary circumstances," the city archives were closed. Smith would not take no for an answer. He repeated his request, and Anne repeated the translation that the archives were closed. After three tries, Smith gave up and told Anne to go join Mark in the state archives. When Mark and Oksana arrived at the Slovak State Archives, they noticed that the entire staff was looking out the windows at the tanks (T55 ' s) roaring by, except Mr. Grant. The latter was nonchalantly reading and translating Magyar documents, oblivious to the noise outside. After a while Mr. Grant's behavior puzzled Mark so much that he asked Mr. Grant, "how can you continue to work while we are being invaded?" Mr. Grant smiled and replied, "This is my fifth invasion ." When Mr. Grant saw the puzzled look on Mark ' s face , he explained that the Russians had broken through the Carpathians into Hungary in the fall and winter of 1914-1915, then Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army occupied Presov in 1919, the Germans occupied Slovakia in 1944 and the Russians in 1945, and again in 1968. " So, what's new?" he asked. "But, don't you want to see the Russian tanks?" Mark asked. Mr. Grant gestured no with his hand. Then he added, "You should have seen a German Tiger. That was a tank!" Mr. Grant then reminisced that, shortly after the Second World War had ended, he took the train from Presov to Kos ice. About half way there he spotted four destroyed tanks in a nearby field . Three were Russian T34 ' s and one was a German Tiger with its treads blown off. It was obvious what had happened. �136 SLOVAKIA 2021 After these reassuring words from Mr. Grant, Mark and Anne cairned down and decided to return to Andrej's apartment, to get their camera, and take some pictures of the invasion. After having eaten some lunch, the intrepid pair set out on Uti ca cervenej arrnady [Red Army Street] (today's Levoca Street) towards the main intersection of Presov at Utica Slovenskej republiky rad [Street of the Slovak Socialist Republic] , today 's Hlavna ulica (Main Street), right in front of the Bosak Bank. 17 There the pair saw a burning Russian military vehicle, which some tank had previously rammed. Just as they were passing by the Bosak Bank, another tank roared by and hit the burning vehicle and it lunged towards the bank . Seeing the approaching truck out of the comer of his eye, Mark shoved Anne out of the way and prepared to be crushed. Fortunately, there was a very strong guard-rail at this location, and it stopped the burning vehicle. After Mark and Anne recovered from this near-fatal mishap, they crossed the street and, upon the urging of a local, climbed up the stairs of the Ukrainian Theater and emerged onto a balcony, where they had an unobstructed view of the invasion . They started to take color slides of the Russian tanks and other vehic les. Ru ss ian military vehicles on Dukla Street, Presov, August 21, 1968. Meanwhile, in the morning they had noticed that elderly citizens had lined up outside various food stores, to "stock up" in case the 17 This bui ldi ng was erected by the American Slovak millionaire Michal Bosak in the I 920 's. He also built a school in Okruhle, hi s village of origin. For more on Bosak see Michal Bosak & Rudolf Bosa k, Michal Bosak- americkj bankar zo Sarisa (Presov, Ibi s Publishin g, 1997). �SLOVAKIA 2021 137 Russian soldiers started looting, as they had done in 1945 . By noon, however, the dynamics had changed. Hundreds of students, who had been home for summer vacation, started to pour into Presov. Soon, they began marching up and down the main square, shouting " Ysetci l'udia na chodniku nemiluju republiku!" (People on the sidewalk do not love the Republic) an old communist slogan from May-day parades. Soon a few of the bravest students jumped onto the street, at the main crossing located at the Bosak Bank, and stopped the tanks! Students blocking Russian tanks at intersection of Dukla and Red Anny Streets, Presov, August 21, 1968. They held up the invasion for three hours. Finally, by mid-afternoon, a Russian military helicopter hovered overhead and must have given the driver of the lead tank orders to proceed because, at that moment, the lead tank lowered its gun and began swinging it from side-to-side, while simultaneously roaring its engine. (Photo next page). That had the desired effect, as the students jumped aside to avoid being hit by the barrel of its canon. After that the tanks proceeded closely and quickly, in order to not give the students a chance to once �138 SLOVAK.IA 2021 again jump in front and stop the tanks. On the first day of the invasion, the commander of occupation forces in Presov announced a state of Martial Law to begin at I 0:00 p.m. Instead of obeying him, the citizens of Presov hit the streets in large numbers and began to shout "Rusi domov! Rusi domov!" (Russians, go home! Russians, go home!). When an armored scout-car appeared, the people began to pelt it with bricks and bottles and it quickly fled the scene. Russian military helicopter hovering above Presov, August 21 , 1968. Russian scout car and tanks on a side street in Presov, August, 1968. �SLOVAKIA 2021 139 During the day individuals posted large anti-Russian posters and placards onto shop windows. One large cartoon was Mark's favorite: It depicted a Russian soldier, who had just had a bowl movement, rising from the toilet and the reactionary communist Vasil Bil'ak was licking his ass! Mark wanted to photograph it, but was afraid to do so, because it was rumored that agents of the Russian KGB were in town, and were arresting people taking such pictures. The citizens of Presov suspected that Vasil Bil'ak, a conservative member of the Czechoslovak Politburo, was one of the traitors who had urged the Russians to invade. The citizens were right. 18 For three days the Russians hurtled through Presov in the direction of Poprad. By the end of the week, when the city was fully occupied. (See the next 5 photographs) Russian soldier guarding tank in central Presov , August, 1968. 18 Six members of the Politburo, including Vasil Bil'ak , signed such a letter of invitation to the Ru ssians just before the invasion. For a copy of this letter see Otakar Korinek, Poz;vvaci list 1968 (Bratislava: Albert Marencin PT, 2006), 82-3. �140 SLOVAKIA 2021 Russ ian soldiers talking to civili ans, Presov, August, 1968. Russ ian vehicles bes ides Post Office in Presov, August 1968 �SLOVAKIA 2021 141 Russian soldiers and officers in a military vehicle, Presov, August, 1968. Russian tanks in front of Czechoslovak military barracks in Presov, August, 1968. �142 SLOVAKIA 2021 A certain professor of the Ukrainian language at the University of Presov, whom Timothy Smith knew, approached the research group from America and suggested that they leave as soon as possible, because he knew that Oksana had been born in Berlin in 1942 and was in danger of being picked up by agents of the KGB . Timothy Smith agreed and the four researchers set out in their respective Volkswagens towards Bratislava via Sabinov, Brezovicka and the Levoca forest in order to avoid the formidable Branisko Pass, where columns of Russian vehicles were moving very slowly. Between Spisske Podhradie and the city of Poprad they had to pass many slow-moving Russian vehicles. At one point, they drove by an entire column stopped by the side of the road, with Russian soldiers picking pears from the trees. Apparently the soldiers were hungry and their supply-wagons had not caught up with them. As the researchers approached the city of Poprad, they saw huge red letters that spelled DUBCEK painted vertically on the entire side of a tall apartment building. A nearby crane revealed how this was made possible. Mark would have photographed this sign, except that he had just passed a moving column of Russians. Meanwhile, Mark's Volkswagen rattled from the ruts in the road made by tank tracks, a ll the way to Bratislava. As they drove west, Mark and Anne noticed that the locals had changed all the directional signs, to try to confuse the Russians . It didn ' t work, since the Russians had good maps of Czechoslovakia, as did Mark and Anne. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne also noticed many pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian signs along the way. For instance, in the village of Brezovicka, past the city of Sabinov, someone had painted " The Whole World Supports Dubcek" on an abandoned log cabin. (First photo next page) On the meandering Vah river, between the cities of Ruzomberok and Martin, the locals had painted on the concrete abutment " DUBCEK JE NAS JANOSIK" (Dubcek is our Janosik), conjuring up Slovakia's I 8 th century social bandit. 19 On the way to Bratislava, the little caravan stopped in Martin, Cadca and Trnava, to bid farewell to family and friends . At the Matica slovenska the sympathetic workers gave Mark souvenir copies of the newly-resurrected daily Narodne noviny, which the communists had 19 For the story of Janosik see Jozef Kocis, Neznamy Jano.~ik (Marti n: Osveta, 1986). �SLOVAKIA 2021 143 shut down in the l 950's, but which now fully supported the Dubcekled government. (Second photo next page) As Mark was driving past the city of Trencin, he pulled out to pass a tractor dragging a wagon of hay and suddenly found himself confronted by a Russian truck barreling down on him. Fortunately, the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes and Mark narrowly avoided colliding with him. Anne upbraided Mark for this near-miss, to which he sourly replied, "The Russians don't belong here! " The American caravan stopped briefly in Trnava and Bratislava, to bid farewell to family and friends. While in Trnava at Jozef Mazur's apartment, where they had lunch, Oksana spied a piano in the living room. She started to play some tunes on it but, when she played the World War II German song "Lily Marl ene," Jozefs wife Lola, who was a schoolteacher and afra id for her job, sc reamed at Oksana to stop, because the communists had forbidden such songs from being played. Graffiti, "The Whole World Supports Dubcek" in Brezovicka, eastern Slovakia, August, 1968. �144 SLOVAKIA 2021 Narodne no viny (Martin, August 29, 1968): " We understand and support you, comrade Dubcek. You negoti ated outside of our homeland ." Thus, even though the Dubcek era had seen the abolition of censorship, self-censorship still prevailed. Meanwhile, as in most Slovak cities and villages, Trnava also had its share of pro-Dubcek and antiRussian posters. Graffiti in central Tmava: "Not what the occupiers demanded, but what we support with Dubcek and Svoboda," August, 1968. �SLOVAKIA 2021 145 The final stop of the caravan was in Bratislava. When the four researchers appeared at the Historicky ustav SA V, they were greeted by the furious but dispirited historians and their secretarial staff. After some discussion , both sides agreed that, in view of the invasion and the uncertainty of the future , it would be best to cancel the planned scholarly conference on Emigration from Eastern Europe to North America in the nearby castle of Smolen ice, which belonged to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. After they bade their farewells , the four researchers returned to their cars parked on Dostojevskeho rad (Dostojevsky Street). Fearing that The Russians would control the border, and search their car for photographs, Mark decided to photograph some more pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian graffiti painted on various buildings in the vicinity, then hide his film in a difficult-to-find spot in his car and hope the Ru ssians would not find it. (See the last 3 Photos) After thi s the American caravan approached the Old Bridge and drove past Russian tanks parked on both sides. Once they had crossed into Petrfalka they noticed what looked like a whole regiment of Russians camped in the park of Janko Kral' beside the Danube River. As they approached the border, however, they saw that Slovak soldiers were still in charge, complete with their sub-machine guns. Only one lonely Russian soldier, seated on a bench and staring at the ground, could be seen. When Mark asked the Slovak customs officers about the Russian soldier, they replied, "We're ignoring him . You should too." After perfunctorily checking their passports and visas, the customs officers bade the travelers farewell and, after the Slovak soldier lifted and pulled into Czechoslovakia the heavy cantilevered gate, the four researchers drove into Austria and freedom . August of 1968 will forever be etched into Mark 's and Anne's memories. What started out as a happy honeymoon in Europe and in Slovakia turned into the tragedy of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. It was a brutal reminder of how superpowers can intimidate and subjugate their much smaller and weaker neighbors. �146 SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : "Long Live Dubcek .. ." August, 1968. Graffiti in Bratislava: " ... and Svoboda" August, 1968 �SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : " Moscow" (the other way), August, 1968. 147 �� SLOVAKIA 2021 121 "THE RUSSIANS ARE INVADING US!" PRESOV, 1968 M. Mark Stolarik In 1968 Anne and Mark Stolarik experienced two unforgettable events in their lives- they were married and later witnessed the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Not many people can brag that their honeymoon was interrupted by Russian tanks! Meanwhile, they also experienced many culture shocks, as they toured Slovakia for the first time. For the newlyweds the summer of 1968 started quite auspiciously. On June 15, over 400 guests appeared at the wedding of Mark Stolarik and Anne fvanco in Oshawa, Ontario, the automobile capital of Canada. The ceremony was held in the packed Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Ritson Road, and was presided over by the Reverend Stefan Adamiak. 1 Afterwards the guests walked to the nearby Slovak Hall ,2 ate a many-course meal in the basement and then proceeded upstairs where the dancing and drinking began . As was typical of Slovak weddings, two men got into a fight and were ejected by the bride 's father. By I 0:00 p.m. a crisis arose- there was no more liquor! Jan Jvanco, the bride 's father, quickly rounded up all of his friends, explained the situation, and they raced home to empty their liquor cabinets in order to keep the celebration going into the wee hours of the morning. After the tearful bridal dance at midnight, during which Mark was ejected from the building, Jan lvanco and his new son-in-law met in a back room and counted up all the monetary donations received, either during the wedding, or during the bridal dance. They totaled $4,000, which was more than enough to cover all of their planned-for honeymoon expenses to Europe, and their research-trip to Slovakia. At that time Mark was a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota, where he was studying 1 For the history of this parish see "S lovak Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada" (Xerox copy, Oshawa, 2002) . A copy can be found in the Slovak Arc hi ves, Arc hives and Special Collections, Unive rsity of Ottawa. 2 For a photo of this hall, see the front cover of Polyphony : The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario 2, No. I (Winter, 1979). �122 SLOVAKIA 2021 under the direction of Timothy L. Smith, who had recently founded the Immigrant Archives at the University. 3 As one of Smith's Research Assistants, Mark 's duties consisted of collecting archival materials in American and Canadian cities pertaining to Slovak immigration to North America and then writing his dissertation based upon these materials. The day after their wedding Mark and Anne fl ew from Toronto to Minneapolis and from there by a special charter plane for uni versity students to Paris. After touring Paris with student colleagues from the University of Minnesota, Mark and Anne took a train to Stuttgart, Germany, where they picked up a brand-new Volkswagen " Beetle" which Mark had purchased for $1,300. With their new car they drove to Munich and Salzburg, where they visited with friend s and then proceeded to Vienna. In this ancient capital of the former Habsburg Empire, which they first toured, they applied for and received visas from the Czechoslovak Consulate to visit the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. After a picturesque drive from Vienna through the towns of Hainburg and Wolfstahl, the newlyweds approached the Czechoslovak border. They could see the Little Carpathians looming in the di stance, and Bratislava castle overlooking the city. As they approached the border, they noticed that they were the only car entering the Republic. A lonely soldier, with a sub-machine gun slung over his back, lifted a heavy cantilevered iron gate, which opened only inwards, and allowed them in . Thereupon two surprised customs officers emerged from a little building off to the side and, under a covered roof asked the travelers for their passports and visas. 3 For the history of the Immigrant Archives, later renamed the Immigration History Research Center, see my " Building Ethnic Arch ives in the United States and Canada since the I 960 's," in Dominique Daniel and Amalia Levi eds., Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the U.S. and Canada (Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books, 20 13), 59-6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 123 Petrfalka border crossing from Austria, 1993 . In 1968 there were no signs at this crossing except the large letters that read " Bratislava." Fortunately, Timothy Smith had arranged for Dr. 1:udovit Holotik, the Director of the Historical [nstitute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, to issue them, as we ll as his entire team of researchers, an official invitation, which made the granting of visas by the Czechoslovak authorities that much easier. After a two-hour wait at the border, while the customs officers awaited a telephone call from Prague confirming their visas as legitimate, the couple was cleared for entrance into the Republic. Before they departed they changed some American dollars for Czechoslovak crowns, because it was noon and their stomachs were growling. Because they had an official invitation , they did not have to exchange $12.00 (U.S.) for Czechoslovak crowns for each day of their stay at the official (and unrealistic) rate of seven crowns for a �124 SLOVAKIA 2021 dollar. The real (black market) rate of exchange was 35 crowns for a dollar. Once they had cleared customs, the two visitors proceeded in their little green Volkswagen along a narrow two-lane road towards the town of Petrzalka, a suburb of Bratislava. They noticed that the road was raised higher than the nearby empty fields , and soon they passed a tall guard-tower, with two more armed soldiers watching them. rt was clear that they had just passed through the "Iron Curtain" which separated the communist East from the democratic West. After the pair had crossed the "Stary most" (Old Bridge) across the Danube River from Petrzalka to Bratislava, and drove along Sturova Street into the heart of the city, they were disappointed by what they saw. The buildings were old and grey, with the plaster falling off. What a contrast with modem, clean and dynamic Vienna! The pedestrians were dressed in what looked like I 940's clothing. It seemed to the visitors that they had entered into the "Third World." As they drove along, they looked in vain for a sign that would advertise a restaurant. When the pair drove their Volkswagen up the hill through the Square of the Slovak National Uprising, past the Church of the Holy Trinity, they noticed a large sign at its base that read "Sovietska kniha" (Soviet Bookstore), which again reminded them that they were in the communist East. Finally, as they emerged into what is now known as " Hodo:fovo namestie" (Hodza Square), the hungry couple spied a sign on the left that read "Restauracia Stefanka." Elated, they parked their car on a side road and entered the restaurant with great anticipation. A friendly waiter in a tuxedo greeted them and sat them beside a window overlooking the square. He explained that the Stefanka did not provide individual service, but they could help themselves at the buffet table. Mark and Anne were delighted to see little open-faced sandwiches, with all sorts of delicacies on them, awaiting their hungry stomachs. They ate to their heart's content. Meanwhile, they noticed that the clientele consisted mostly of older gentlemen and young women. They made nothing of it. A little later, whi le visiting Mark 's cousin Jozef Mazur in nearby Trnava, Jozef asked the couple for their first impressions of Slovakia. When they recounted their lunch at the Stefanka, Jozef burst into laughter. When Mark inquired as to what was so funny, Jozef replied, "Don't you know what the Stefanka is?" To which Mark replied , "no," to which Jozef added, "The Stefanka is �SLOVAKIA 2021 125 notorious in Bratislava as the place where you go if you want to pick up a prostitute! " Upon reflection, Mark and Anne understood why they had seen so many older gentlemen and younger women at the Stefanka. They had a good laugh! After lunch on their first day in Slovakia, Mark and Anne proceeded to the offices of the Historicky ustav SAV (Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) on Klemensova Street. Here a sheepish Dr. L:udovit Holotik welcomed them and explained that he was leaving shortly on a research trip to England . He failed to mention that he had just been fired as Director of the Institute, because in the l 950 ' s he had written a defamatory book about the Slovak national hero, General Milan R. Stefanik. During the liberali z ing " Dubcek era",4 such books were frowned upon and Holotik was attacked in the now-free press.5 Holotik then introduced Mark to his successor, Dr. Julius Mesaros. The latter was initially skeptical of Mark ' s motives, but when Mark explained that he was a student of Timothy Smith, and part of a team of researchers who were coming to Slovakia to study the emigration of various ethnic groups from the former Kingdom of Hungary, Mesaros mellowed. He offered Mark and Anne some Turkish coffee, made by his secretary, which consisted of one-third coffeegrounds and two-thirds thick, dark, coffee in a demi-tasse. The Canadian couple had never before seen or tasted such coffee and slowly sipped it in order not to insult their host. Mark and Anne were raised on "cafe au lait". Apparently, the Russians had introduced "Turkish coffee" to the Eastern Bloc. After this introduction, Mesaros brought to Mark dozens of articles and books written by himself and his colleagues at the Hi storical Institute on the social history of 19 th century Slovakia.6 Once he had read them, Mark would have a good back- 4 For the Dubce k era , popularl y kn own as the " Prague Spring," see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion of Czechoslovakia, / 968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Sto larik (Munde lein, IL : Bo lchazy-Carducc i, 20 I 0). 1..:udovit Holotik, Stefa nikovska legenda a vznik CSR (Brati slava: Slove nska academia vied. 1958); fo r th e attacks upon Holot ik see Jan Ml ynarik , " Hi stori ci v Enckylopedii Slovenska- bilanci a neostalinskeho kadrovani a (Studia k slovenskej histori ografii )" Premeny 25 (4, 1988), 147-8. 6 Mesaros's most important publication was Rolnicka a narodnostna otazka na Slovensku, 1848-1900; k problematikef eudalnych prei itkov (Bratislava : Slovenska academia vi ed, 1959). 5 �126 SLOVAKIA 2021 ground understanding of the archival sources which he would subsequently find in various Slovak state archives. After having spent their first night in the nearby Hotel Krym, Mark and Anne proceeded to the headquarters of the Slovak State Archives on the " Ulica obrancov mieru" (Street of the Defenders of Peace; today 's Stefanikova Street). There they met and befriended Dr. Frantisek Bielik, one of the archivists who was interested in the topic of Slovak immigration .7 He subsequently introduced the couple to Deputy Director Jozef Mazur who, it turned out, was Mark 's long-lost cousin on his mother's side. They had a joyful reunion during which Jozef Mazur showed Mark photos of himself visiting with Mark 's family in Turciansky Svaty Martin during the Second World War. Jozef then wrote Mark an official letter of introduction to all the Slovak State Archives scattered across the country, in which Jozef instructed the local archivists to help Mark in finding material s on Slovak emigration to North America. For the next two weeks Frantisek Bielik found such materials for Mark in the Bratislava State Archives. While Mark and Anne stayed at the nearby inexpensive Hotel Tatra, which was full of Russians, they had a curious experience. Every morning when they ate breakfast in the hotel 's dining room, they ordered the same things- ham and eggs with rolls and coffee. The total bill was always 28 crowns, which they rounded up to 30, much to the deli ght of their middle-aged waiter, who collected the money on the spot. They were not used to waiters doing this, because in North America waiters or waitresses usually submitted a bill , and the customers paid through a cashier, who controlled the amount requested and paid. One day, the middle-aged waiter took the day off and was replaced by a much younger colleague. Mark and Anne ordered the same breakfast, but the new waiter charged them 48 crowns! Not wishing to create a scene, they paid the 48 crowns and left. The next day, when the middle-aged waiter returned, they showed him the previous day's breakfast bill. He was furiou s, he apologized, did not charge them for their breakfast, and vowed that his younger colleague would never again repl ace him . Mark and Anne wondered how often waiters in 7 While Bielik started hi s career at the Slovak State Archives, he later switched to the Institute for Slovaks Abroad of the Matica slovenska and published, amon g many others things, the four- volume compendium of documents on Slovak immigrati on entitled Slovenske vystahovalectvo. Dokumenty / -4 (Bratislava: Slovenska academ ia vied, 1969- 1985). �SLOVAKIA 2021 127 Slovakia (and elsewhere in Europe) cheated their customers in this way. After their stay in Bratislava, Mark and Anne drove north to the city of Trnava, to do research in the archives of the Spolok Sv. Yojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert). They stayed with the family of Jozef Mazur, who introduced Mark to the Director of the Spolok, Msgr. Jan Postenyi . The latter was delighted to meet Mark, because Postenyi had been on a tour of the USA in 193 7, and had since not met with any American Slovaks. He gladly opened his rich archive to Mark, where the latter discovered many documents pertaining to the history of the Slovak League of America during and after World War I. These included a carbon-copy of the 1915 Cleveland Agreement. 8 After a week's stay in Trnava, Mark and Anne set out for northern Slovakia, where they met additional members of their family. In Cadca they stayed with Mark 's uncle Jozef Stolarik, who took Mark to see his grandmother Anna Stolarikova and her daughter Terezia Bosakova in the hilly settlement of Dlha, near the city of Turzovka. Anna had not seen her grandson since his Christening in 1943 . Since Anna was illiterate, she wondered how Mark had managed to find her. Mark took out a road map of Europe and showed her the roads they had driven from Stuttgart to Slovakia, but it was hard for her to comprehend what he was showing. Mark, meanwhile, was amused that she was wearing black Converse sneakers. Uncle Jozef explained that it was easier for her to climb up the hill to her house in sneakers than in leather shoes. There was no road up the hill from the one below. After having visited two more aunts and their families, in midJuly, Mark and Anne set out for the city of Martin, Mark's birthplace. While driving between the city of Zilina and the ruins of castle Strecno, Mark and Anne suddenly spotted a long column of Russian military vehicles parked on the old road beside the new one. They were engaged in war games called "operation Sumava" in order to intimidate the Czechoslovak government into stopping the transformation of Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," as the first Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, 8 For the history of the Spolok Sv. Vojtecha see Stefan Hanakovic, Dejiny Spolku sviiteho Vojtecha (Trnava : Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 2005), especia ll y pages 281-84 for Postenyi ' s trip to America. The Cleve land Agreement can be found in the Archiv Spolku Svateho Vojtecha, Politika, fasc. 235 , fol. A. c.2 �128 SLOVAKIA 2021 Alexander Dubcek, put it. As he made clear in hi s memo irs, he and hi s followers were trying to turn communist Czechoslovakia into a Social Democratic Czechoslovakia.9 His colleagues in the Warsaw Pact, particularly Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka and East German leader Walter Ulbricht, vehemently disapproved of the path of the so-called Prague Spring, and "operation Sumava" was a prelude to the later in vas ion of Czechoslovakia. 10 Meanwhile, when Mark saw these Soviet military veh icles, he instantly shouted at Anne to start photographing them , because he was driving and was afraid to stop the car, lest the Russians arrest him. A terrified Anne grabbed hi s 35mi llimeter camera and took several color slides of these vehicles. Russ ian military vehicles parked on the old road between Z ilina and Strecno in northern Slovakia, Jul y, 1968 9 Hope Dies Last: The Autohiography of Alexander Dubcek, ed. and trans. by Jiri Hochman (New York: Kodansha International, 1993), 277. 10 For the views of Brezhnev, Gomulka and Ulbricht, see the chapters by Mikhail Latysh, Lukasz Kaminski and Riidi ger Wenzke in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion, 1-18, 95- 128 and 137-64. �SLOVAKIA 2021 129 Russian "Katyusha" rocket launchers on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July, 1969. Russian ambulance and military vehicles on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July 1968. After this harrowing experience, Mark and Anne kept driving around the Strecno pass until they reached the city of Martin. Here �130 SLOVAKIA 2021 they met Uncle Rudolf and hi s family and stayed with them for a week while Mark worked in the Literary Archive of the Matica slovenska. Here he met Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the Slovak National Library of the Matica slovenska. The two of them agreed upon an exchange of books and other materials in the future , a promise which is still in effect. While in Martin, at the urging of Frantisek (Ferko) Bielik, Mark attended the 6th Congress of the Slovak Historical Society, where he heard Dr. Lubomir Liptak 's attack upon the "deformation" of Slovak hi story by Marxist hi storian s in the previous decades. 11 He also heard Prof. Milos Gosiorovsky' s plea for the federation of Czechoslovakia based upon the Cleveland Agreement of 1915. 12 Mark was amused by Ferko Bielik 's antics at this Congress- he lifted hi s hand in approval of various motions made, whi le shaking hi s head sideways in disapproval. He explained that the conference organizers only counted the raised hands, not the heads shaking sideways. This was a small gesture of disapproval of the conference proceedings. After their stay in Martin, at the beginning of August, the newlyweds set out for the city of Presov, to do research in the archives of the former county of Saris, from where the first immigrants had left for America. 13 In Presov they met and stayed with Anne's uncle Andrej Krasnay in the Sid lisko Dukelskych hrdinov (the Apartment Complex of the Heroes of the Duk la Pass). Shortly after their arrival , Andrej took Mark and Anne to visit her grandmother in her vi ll age for the first time, as well as other aunts and uncles. At Andrej 's condo Mark and Anne had to get used to the socialist way of life. For instance, sometimes the water flowed from the faucets in Andrej's apartment, sometimes not. Therefore, Andrej kept his tub full of water, so that he would not run out. Sometimes the water was hot. Sometimes it was not. Whenever the water flowed hot, Andrej called the couple to immediately take a bath. And, even though Presov had street li ghts, they were not turned on at night, in order to conserve electricity. When Mark went to do research in the Slovak State Archives in Presov, which was located on the Main Square, right beside the church of St. Nicholas, he had some interesting experiences. When he met 11 Cubomir Liptak, "U loha a postavenie historiografie v nasej spolocnosti, Hisloricky casopi.1· XVII , c. l , 1969, 98- 11 7. 12 Milos Gosiorovsky, "Slovaci za prvej svetovej vojny," in Slovaci a ich narodnv v;ivin, ed. Oto Takac (Brati slava: Slovenska academ ia vied, I969), 29 1-305 . 13 Slovak State Archives in Presov, county Saris, podzupan, 9809, VB, 1879. �SLOVAK.IA 2021 131 Andrej Lukac, the Director of the Archive, the latter was cool to Mark's visit. He claimed that the material Mark was searching for was not yet processed and suggested that Mark return sometime in the future, when it would become available. Mark then asked if Lukac knew Jozef Mazur, to which Lukac replied, "Hej , onje moj set1'' (Of course! He's my boss.) To which Mark replied, "Hej, on je moj bratranec." (Of course! He's my cousin.) As soon as Lukac heard Mark ' s reply, he jumped into action. Lukac suggested that, since Mark could not read Magyar, and most of the documents were in that language, he hire a translator. Mark agreed and the next day Lukac introduced Mark to Mr. Grant. The latter was the descendant of a Scottish soldier who had remained in Central Europe in the 17 th century. Mr. Grant was in his 80's, he had been educated in the old Austria-Hungary, and knew Slovak, Magyar, German and Latin. He was overly polite, as such gentlemen were trained to be and, whenever he found an interesting document to translate, he would say "No, prosim Vas pekne," which means "Now, if you please," and then would proceed to translate. Lukac suggested that Mark pay Mr. Grant I 00 crowns per day, which was the going rate for such services. Mark agreed, since on the black market that would come to only $3.00 (US) a day. Mr. Grant was so intelligent that, after he had translated some documents, he grasped what Mark was looking for, and then did his translating without any more superv1s1on. Mark and Anne also did research in Kosice. Once they had exhausted their sources in Presov, they drove south to Kosice, to work in the fonner archives of Abov and Zemplin counties, which were housed in the former Abov county headquarters on Orlia Street, one block from the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth. As they drove into Kosice and approached the main square, they noticed and photographed a bust of General Milan R. Stefanik on a pedestal that was obviously erected spontaneously and hurriedly by some local patriots on the exact spot where a much larger statue of Stefanik had been erected in the l 920's. The statue was removed by communist authorities in the I 950's. (See the photo on page 133) This bust testified to the rise of Slovak nationalism during the Dubcek era. At the Slovak State Archives in Kosice Mark and Anne �132 SLOVAKIA 2021 were welcomed by the Director, Ladislav Andrasi and his assistant, Anna Fedorjakova. The latter willingly and eagerly helped Mark to translate documents from Magyar into Slovak. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne were joined by Professor Timothy Smith and another one of his graduate students, Oksana Dragan, who had both just come down from Poland in Smith's brown Volkswagen. Smith was studying Slovak Lutheran immigration from eastern Slovakia while Oksana was researching Rusyn (Ukrainian) immigration to North America. Smith then suggested to Mark that he a lso consult the Roman Catholic bishop's archives, located on Lenin Street, opposite the Cathedral. Since Anne had studied Latin for five years in High School, she volunteered to do this and was assisted by the Rev. Alojs Tkac, who was in charge of the archives. After the collapse of Communism, the latter was e levated to the post of Bishop, and later, Archbishop of Kosice. 14 Meanwhile, Professor Smith arranged a meeting with an "Action Committee" of the newly-resurrected Greek Catholic Church, led by Msgr. Jan Hirka, who, once Communism collapsed, was e levated to Eparch (Bishop) of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Presov. 15 On the evening of August 20, 1968, Mark and Anne, together with Timothy Smith and Oksana Dragan, decided to dine together. They went to the Magyar Restaurant in Kosice , where they enjoyed an exotic meal and did some dancing to the tunes of a Gypsy (Roma) orchestra. 14 Alojz Tkac was persecuted by the Communi sts durin g the period of "Normalization" ( 1970- 1989) and penned hi s memoirs in Pohl'adv z kriiovatky (Kapusany: Bens, 2004). 15 For the hi story of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia from 1968 to 1980, see Martin Lupco, "Grec kokatolick a a pravoslavna cirkev na Slovensku v rokoch 19681980," in Jaroslav Corani c- Jana Koprivnakova- Peter Sturak eds. Grekokatolicka cirkev na Slovensku vo svetle vyroci II (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 2012), 165-77. Msgr. Jan H irka published hi s memoirs in Pod ochranou Marie: Pastier v zlui be cirkvi (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 20 13 ). �SLOVAKIA 2021 133 Bust of General M.R. Stefanik on the main square, Kosice, August, 1968. �134 SLOVAKIA 2021 Around 11 :00 p.m. all four researchers decided to drive back to their abodes in Presov. As Mark and Anne drove through the village of Drienov, just north of Kosice, a black cat ran in front of their car. Although they did not kill it, Mark wondered aloud if it signaled that they would have bad luck. "I hope not," Anne answered. Around 4:30 a.m. on August 21 , Mark and Anne were awakened by a very loud noise coming from the streets of Presov. At first they thought that it was the sound of jackhammers, and Mark began to curse the workers who could not wait until 8:00 a.m. to repair the streets. Then they heard a knocking on the door to the apartment. Andrej Krasnay gingerly approached the door and asked, "who ' s there?" Mark and Anne were afraid that the Secret Police had come for them, because they always came at night. Instead, it was the next-doorneighbor. He told Andrej something and Andrej then knocked on Mark and Anne's glass door, came in and announced that "The Russians, Poles, East Germans, Magyars and Bulgarians are occupying us!" 16 All three then understood that the noise from the street was not from jackhammers, but from tanks. Dazed, Mark and Anne decided to immediately dress and repair to the Hotel Dukla, where Professor Smith and Oksana Dragan were staying. It was sunrise by the time they arrived and Smith had just arisen. Mark knocked on his door and as Smith opened it, Mark blurted out "the Russians are invading us." Smith looked out his window at the tanks and remarked that he thought it was military maneuvers again . Mark assured him that it was not, that this was a real invasion . Smith then suggested that Mark go find Anne, who had gone upstairs to inform Oksana of the invasion , to come down to the dining room to discuss the situation. The four researchers, along with a young and lonely waiter, were the only customers in the dining room. While Smith ate a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and rolls , the three students were too frightened to eat. Smith nonchalantly remarked, " We ' re Americans. This doesn ' t concern us." He cou ldn 't have been more wrong. Mark was born in Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1943 and Oksana in Berlin in 1942. Oksana was the daughter of the editor of the 16 The East Germans did not parti cipate in the invasion . For a detailed ex planati on sec Rildi gcr Wcnzkc, "The Rol e and Acti vities of the SEO, the East German State and Its Military During th e ' Prague Spring' of 1968," in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion, 137-64. �SLOVAKIA 2021 135 pro-independence Ukrainian weekly Svoboda, published in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both were post-war refugees who, with their families, had ended up in Canada and the USA after the war. Neither the Soviet Union, nor Czechoslovakia, recognized dual citizenship at that time. Either one of these students could be detained by the authorities, whether Czechoslovak or Russian . Smith, however, was so unconcerned about the invasion that he decided that all four researchers should carry on as if nothing had happened. Thus, he instructed Mark and Oksana to go to the state archives and continue with their research. Meanwhile, he took Anne with him to serve as a translator in the Presov city archives. When Smith met with the Mayor of Presov, who was clearly shattered by the invasion, Smith asked for permission to do research in the city archives. The Mayor replied, with Anne translating, that "due to the extraordinary circumstances," the city archives were closed. Smith would not take no for an answer. He repeated his request, and Anne repeated the translation that the archives were closed. After three tries, Smith gave up and told Anne to go join Mark in the state archives. When Mark and Oksana arrived at the Slovak State Archives, they noticed that the entire staff was looking out the windows at the tanks (T55 ' s) roaring by, except Mr. Grant. The latter was nonchalantly reading and translating Magyar documents, oblivious to the noise outside. After a while Mr. Grant's behavior puzzled Mark so much that he asked Mr. Grant, "how can you continue to work while we are being invaded?" Mr. Grant smiled and replied, "This is my fifth invasion ." When Mr. Grant saw the puzzled look on Mark ' s face , he explained that the Russians had broken through the Carpathians into Hungary in the fall and winter of 1914-1915, then Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army occupied Presov in 1919, the Germans occupied Slovakia in 1944 and the Russians in 1945, and again in 1968. " So, what's new?" he asked. "But, don't you want to see the Russian tanks?" Mark asked. Mr. Grant gestured no with his hand. Then he added, "You should have seen a German Tiger. That was a tank!" Mr. Grant then reminisced that, shortly after the Second World War had ended, he took the train from Presov to Kos ice. About half way there he spotted four destroyed tanks in a nearby field . Three were Russian T34 ' s and one was a German Tiger with its treads blown off. It was obvious what had happened. �136 SLOVAKIA 2021 After these reassuring words from Mr. Grant, Mark and Anne cairned down and decided to return to Andrej's apartment, to get their camera, and take some pictures of the invasion. After having eaten some lunch, the intrepid pair set out on Uti ca cervenej arrnady [Red Army Street] (today's Levoca Street) towards the main intersection of Presov at Utica Slovenskej republiky rad [Street of the Slovak Socialist Republic] , today 's Hlavna ulica (Main Street), right in front of the Bosak Bank. 17 There the pair saw a burning Russian military vehicle, which some tank had previously rammed. Just as they were passing by the Bosak Bank, another tank roared by and hit the burning vehicle and it lunged towards the bank . Seeing the approaching truck out of the comer of his eye, Mark shoved Anne out of the way and prepared to be crushed. Fortunately, there was a very strong guard-rail at this location, and it stopped the burning vehicle. After Mark and Anne recovered from this near-fatal mishap, they crossed the street and, upon the urging of a local, climbed up the stairs of the Ukrainian Theater and emerged onto a balcony, where they had an unobstructed view of the invasion . They started to take color slides of the Russian tanks and other vehic les. Ru ss ian military vehicles on Dukla Street, Presov, August 21, 1968. Meanwhile, in the morning they had noticed that elderly citizens had lined up outside various food stores, to "stock up" in case the 17 This bui ldi ng was erected by the American Slovak millionaire Michal Bosak in the I 920 's. He also built a school in Okruhle, hi s village of origin. For more on Bosak see Michal Bosak & Rudolf Bosa k, Michal Bosak- americkj bankar zo Sarisa (Presov, Ibi s Publishin g, 1997). �SLOVAKIA 2021 137 Russian soldiers started looting, as they had done in 1945 . By noon, however, the dynamics had changed. Hundreds of students, who had been home for summer vacation, started to pour into Presov. Soon, they began marching up and down the main square, shouting " Ysetci l'udia na chodniku nemiluju republiku!" (People on the sidewalk do not love the Republic) an old communist slogan from May-day parades. Soon a few of the bravest students jumped onto the street, at the main crossing located at the Bosak Bank, and stopped the tanks! Students blocking Russian tanks at intersection of Dukla and Red Anny Streets, Presov, August 21, 1968. They held up the invasion for three hours. Finally, by mid-afternoon, a Russian military helicopter hovered overhead and must have given the driver of the lead tank orders to proceed because, at that moment, the lead tank lowered its gun and began swinging it from side-to-side, while simultaneously roaring its engine. (Photo next page). That had the desired effect, as the students jumped aside to avoid being hit by the barrel of its canon. After that the tanks proceeded closely and quickly, in order to not give the students a chance to once �138 SLOVAK.IA 2021 again jump in front and stop the tanks. On the first day of the invasion, the commander of occupation forces in Presov announced a state of Martial Law to begin at I 0:00 p.m. Instead of obeying him, the citizens of Presov hit the streets in large numbers and began to shout "Rusi domov! Rusi domov!" (Russians, go home! Russians, go home!). When an armored scout-car appeared, the people began to pelt it with bricks and bottles and it quickly fled the scene. Russian military helicopter hovering above Presov, August 21 , 1968. Russian scout car and tanks on a side street in Presov, August, 1968. �SLOVAKIA 2021 139 During the day individuals posted large anti-Russian posters and placards onto shop windows. One large cartoon was Mark's favorite: It depicted a Russian soldier, who had just had a bowl movement, rising from the toilet and the reactionary communist Vasil Bil'ak was licking his ass! Mark wanted to photograph it, but was afraid to do so, because it was rumored that agents of the Russian KGB were in town, and were arresting people taking such pictures. The citizens of Presov suspected that Vasil Bil'ak, a conservative member of the Czechoslovak Politburo, was one of the traitors who had urged the Russians to invade. The citizens were right. 18 For three days the Russians hurtled through Presov in the direction of Poprad. By the end of the week, when the city was fully occupied. (See the next 5 photographs) Russian soldier guarding tank in central Presov , August, 1968. 18 Six members of the Politburo, including Vasil Bil'ak , signed such a letter of invitation to the Ru ssians just before the invasion. For a copy of this letter see Otakar Korinek, Poz;vvaci list 1968 (Bratislava: Albert Marencin PT, 2006), 82-3. �140 SLOVAKIA 2021 Russ ian soldiers talking to civili ans, Presov, August, 1968. Russ ian vehicles bes ides Post Office in Presov, August 1968 �SLOVAKIA 2021 141 Russian soldiers and officers in a military vehicle, Presov, August, 1968. Russian tanks in front of Czechoslovak military barracks in Presov, August, 1968. �142 SLOVAKIA 2021 A certain professor of the Ukrainian language at the University of Presov, whom Timothy Smith knew, approached the research group from America and suggested that they leave as soon as possible, because he knew that Oksana had been born in Berlin in 1942 and was in danger of being picked up by agents of the KGB . Timothy Smith agreed and the four researchers set out in their respective Volkswagens towards Bratislava via Sabinov, Brezovicka and the Levoca forest in order to avoid the formidable Branisko Pass, where columns of Russian vehicles were moving very slowly. Between Spisske Podhradie and the city of Poprad they had to pass many slow-moving Russian vehicles. At one point, they drove by an entire column stopped by the side of the road, with Russian soldiers picking pears from the trees. Apparently the soldiers were hungry and their supply-wagons had not caught up with them. As the researchers approached the city of Poprad, they saw huge red letters that spelled DUBCEK painted vertically on the entire side of a tall apartment building. A nearby crane revealed how this was made possible. Mark would have photographed this sign, except that he had just passed a moving column of Russians. Meanwhile, Mark's Volkswagen rattled from the ruts in the road made by tank tracks, a ll the way to Bratislava. As they drove west, Mark and Anne noticed that the locals had changed all the directional signs, to try to confuse the Russians . It didn ' t work, since the Russians had good maps of Czechoslovakia, as did Mark and Anne. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne also noticed many pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian signs along the way. For instance, in the village of Brezovicka, past the city of Sabinov, someone had painted " The Whole World Supports Dubcek" on an abandoned log cabin. (First photo next page) On the meandering Vah river, between the cities of Ruzomberok and Martin, the locals had painted on the concrete abutment " DUBCEK JE NAS JANOSIK" (Dubcek is our Janosik), conjuring up Slovakia's I 8 th century social bandit. 19 On the way to Bratislava, the little caravan stopped in Martin, Cadca and Trnava, to bid farewell to family and friends . At the Matica slovenska the sympathetic workers gave Mark souvenir copies of the newly-resurrected daily Narodne noviny, which the communists had 19 For the story of Janosik see Jozef Kocis, Neznamy Jano.~ik (Marti n: Osveta, 1986). �SLOVAKIA 2021 143 shut down in the l 950's, but which now fully supported the Dubcekled government. (Second photo next page) As Mark was driving past the city of Trencin, he pulled out to pass a tractor dragging a wagon of hay and suddenly found himself confronted by a Russian truck barreling down on him. Fortunately, the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes and Mark narrowly avoided colliding with him. Anne upbraided Mark for this near-miss, to which he sourly replied, "The Russians don't belong here! " The American caravan stopped briefly in Trnava and Bratislava, to bid farewell to family and friends. While in Trnava at Jozef Mazur's apartment, where they had lunch, Oksana spied a piano in the living room. She started to play some tunes on it but, when she played the World War II German song "Lily Marl ene," Jozefs wife Lola, who was a schoolteacher and afra id for her job, sc reamed at Oksana to stop, because the communists had forbidden such songs from being played. Graffiti, "The Whole World Supports Dubcek" in Brezovicka, eastern Slovakia, August, 1968. �144 SLOVAKIA 2021 Narodne no viny (Martin, August 29, 1968): " We understand and support you, comrade Dubcek. You negoti ated outside of our homeland ." Thus, even though the Dubcek era had seen the abolition of censorship, self-censorship still prevailed. Meanwhile, as in most Slovak cities and villages, Trnava also had its share of pro-Dubcek and antiRussian posters. Graffiti in central Tmava: "Not what the occupiers demanded, but what we support with Dubcek and Svoboda," August, 1968. �SLOVAKIA 2021 145 The final stop of the caravan was in Bratislava. When the four researchers appeared at the Historicky ustav SA V, they were greeted by the furious but dispirited historians and their secretarial staff. After some discussion , both sides agreed that, in view of the invasion and the uncertainty of the future , it would be best to cancel the planned scholarly conference on Emigration from Eastern Europe to North America in the nearby castle of Smolen ice, which belonged to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. After they bade their farewells , the four researchers returned to their cars parked on Dostojevskeho rad (Dostojevsky Street). Fearing that The Russians would control the border, and search their car for photographs, Mark decided to photograph some more pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian graffiti painted on various buildings in the vicinity, then hide his film in a difficult-to-find spot in his car and hope the Ru ssians would not find it. (See the last 3 Photos) After thi s the American caravan approached the Old Bridge and drove past Russian tanks parked on both sides. Once they had crossed into Petrfalka they noticed what looked like a whole regiment of Russians camped in the park of Janko Kral' beside the Danube River. As they approached the border, however, they saw that Slovak soldiers were still in charge, complete with their sub-machine guns. Only one lonely Russian soldier, seated on a bench and staring at the ground, could be seen. When Mark asked the Slovak customs officers about the Russian soldier, they replied, "We're ignoring him . You should too." After perfunctorily checking their passports and visas, the customs officers bade the travelers farewell and, after the Slovak soldier lifted and pulled into Czechoslovakia the heavy cantilevered gate, the four researchers drove into Austria and freedom . August of 1968 will forever be etched into Mark 's and Anne's memories. What started out as a happy honeymoon in Europe and in Slovakia turned into the tragedy of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. It was a brutal reminder of how superpowers can intimidate and subjugate their much smaller and weaker neighbors. �146 SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : "Long Live Dubcek .. ." August, 1968. Graffiti in Bratislava: " ... and Svoboda" August, 1968 �SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : " Moscow" (the other way), August, 1968. 147 �� 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 121 "THE RUSSIANS ARE INVADING US!" PRESOV, 1968 M. Mark Stolarik In 1968 Anne and Mark Stolarik experienced two unforgettable events in their lives- they were married and later witnessed the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Not many people can brag that their honeymoon was interrupted by Russian tanks! Meanwhile, they also experienced many culture shocks, as they toured Slovakia for the first time. For the newlyweds the summer of 1968 started quite auspiciously. On June 15, over 400 guests appeared at the wedding of Mark Stolarik and Anne fvanco in Oshawa, Ontario, the automobile capital of Canada. The ceremony was held in the packed Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Ritson Road, and was presided over by the Reverend Stefan Adamiak. 1 Afterwards the guests walked to the nearby Slovak Hall ,2 ate a many-course meal in the basement and then proceeded upstairs where the dancing and drinking began . As was typical of Slovak weddings, two men got into a fight and were ejected by the bride 's father. By I 0:00 p.m. a crisis arose- there was no more liquor! Jan Jvanco, the bride 's father, quickly rounded up all of his friends, explained the situation, and they raced home to empty their liquor cabinets in order to keep the celebration going into the wee hours of the morning. After the tearful bridal dance at midnight, during which Mark was ejected from the building, Jan lvanco and his new son-in-law met in a back room and counted up all the monetary donations received, either during the wedding, or during the bridal dance. They totaled $4,000, which was more than enough to cover all of their planned-for honeymoon expenses to Europe, and their research-trip to Slovakia. At that time Mark was a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota, where he was studying 1 For the history of this parish see "S lovak Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada" (Xerox copy, Oshawa, 2002) . A copy can be found in the Slovak Arc hi ves, Arc hives and Special Collections, Unive rsity of Ottawa. 2 For a photo of this hall, see the front cover of Polyphony : The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario 2, No. I (Winter, 1979). 122 SLOVAKIA 2021 under the direction of Timothy L. Smith, who had recently founded the Immigrant Archives at the University. 3 As one of Smith's Research Assistants, Mark 's duties consisted of collecting archival materials in American and Canadian cities pertaining to Slovak immigration to North America and then writing his dissertation based upon these materials. The day after their wedding Mark and Anne fl ew from Toronto to Minneapolis and from there by a special charter plane for uni versity students to Paris. After touring Paris with student colleagues from the University of Minnesota, Mark and Anne took a train to Stuttgart, Germany, where they picked up a brand-new Volkswagen " Beetle" which Mark had purchased for $1,300. With their new car they drove to Munich and Salzburg, where they visited with friend s and then proceeded to Vienna. In this ancient capital of the former Habsburg Empire, which they first toured, they applied for and received visas from the Czechoslovak Consulate to visit the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. After a picturesque drive from Vienna through the towns of Hainburg and Wolfstahl, the newlyweds approached the Czechoslovak border. They could see the Little Carpathians looming in the di stance, and Bratislava castle overlooking the city. As they approached the border, they noticed that they were the only car entering the Republic. A lonely soldier, with a sub-machine gun slung over his back, lifted a heavy cantilevered iron gate, which opened only inwards, and allowed them in . Thereupon two surprised customs officers emerged from a little building off to the side and, under a covered roof asked the travelers for their passports and visas. 3 For the history of the Immigrant Archives, later renamed the Immigration History Research Center, see my " Building Ethnic Arch ives in the United States and Canada since the I 960 's," in Dominique Daniel and Amalia Levi eds., Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the U.S. and Canada (Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books, 20 13), 59-6 1. SLOVAKIA 2021 123 Petrfalka border crossing from Austria, 1993 . In 1968 there were no signs at this crossing except the large letters that read " Bratislava." Fortunately, Timothy Smith had arranged for Dr. 1:udovit Holotik, the Director of the Historical [nstitute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, to issue them, as we ll as his entire team of researchers, an official invitation, which made the granting of visas by the Czechoslovak authorities that much easier. After a two-hour wait at the border, while the customs officers awaited a telephone call from Prague confirming their visas as legitimate, the couple was cleared for entrance into the Republic. Before they departed they changed some American dollars for Czechoslovak crowns, because it was noon and their stomachs were growling. Because they had an official invitation , they did not have to exchange $12.00 (U.S.) for Czechoslovak crowns for each day of their stay at the official (and unrealistic) rate of seven crowns for a 124 SLOVAKIA 2021 dollar. The real (black market) rate of exchange was 35 crowns for a dollar. Once they had cleared customs, the two visitors proceeded in their little green Volkswagen along a narrow two-lane road towards the town of Petrzalka, a suburb of Bratislava. They noticed that the road was raised higher than the nearby empty fields , and soon they passed a tall guard-tower, with two more armed soldiers watching them. rt was clear that they had just passed through the "Iron Curtain" which separated the communist East from the democratic West. After the pair had crossed the "Stary most" (Old Bridge) across the Danube River from Petrzalka to Bratislava, and drove along Sturova Street into the heart of the city, they were disappointed by what they saw. The buildings were old and grey, with the plaster falling off. What a contrast with modem, clean and dynamic Vienna! The pedestrians were dressed in what looked like I 940's clothing. It seemed to the visitors that they had entered into the "Third World." As they drove along, they looked in vain for a sign that would advertise a restaurant. When the pair drove their Volkswagen up the hill through the Square of the Slovak National Uprising, past the Church of the Holy Trinity, they noticed a large sign at its base that read "Sovietska kniha" (Soviet Bookstore), which again reminded them that they were in the communist East. Finally, as they emerged into what is now known as " Hodo:fovo namestie" (Hodza Square), the hungry couple spied a sign on the left that read "Restauracia Stefanka." Elated, they parked their car on a side road and entered the restaurant with great anticipation. A friendly waiter in a tuxedo greeted them and sat them beside a window overlooking the square. He explained that the Stefanka did not provide individual service, but they could help themselves at the buffet table. Mark and Anne were delighted to see little open-faced sandwiches, with all sorts of delicacies on them, awaiting their hungry stomachs. They ate to their heart's content. Meanwhile, they noticed that the clientele consisted mostly of older gentlemen and young women. They made nothing of it. A little later, whi le visiting Mark 's cousin Jozef Mazur in nearby Trnava, Jozef asked the couple for their first impressions of Slovakia. When they recounted their lunch at the Stefanka, Jozef burst into laughter. When Mark inquired as to what was so funny, Jozef replied, "Don't you know what the Stefanka is?" To which Mark replied , "no," to which Jozef added, "The Stefanka is SLOVAKIA 2021 125 notorious in Bratislava as the place where you go if you want to pick up a prostitute! " Upon reflection, Mark and Anne understood why they had seen so many older gentlemen and younger women at the Stefanka. They had a good laugh! After lunch on their first day in Slovakia, Mark and Anne proceeded to the offices of the Historicky ustav SAV (Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) on Klemensova Street. Here a sheepish Dr. L:udovit Holotik welcomed them and explained that he was leaving shortly on a research trip to England . He failed to mention that he had just been fired as Director of the Institute, because in the l 950 ' s he had written a defamatory book about the Slovak national hero, General Milan R. Stefanik. During the liberali z ing " Dubcek era",4 such books were frowned upon and Holotik was attacked in the now-free press.5 Holotik then introduced Mark to his successor, Dr. Julius Mesaros. The latter was initially skeptical of Mark ' s motives, but when Mark explained that he was a student of Timothy Smith, and part of a team of researchers who were coming to Slovakia to study the emigration of various ethnic groups from the former Kingdom of Hungary, Mesaros mellowed. He offered Mark and Anne some Turkish coffee, made by his secretary, which consisted of one-third coffeegrounds and two-thirds thick, dark, coffee in a demi-tasse. The Canadian couple had never before seen or tasted such coffee and slowly sipped it in order not to insult their host. Mark and Anne were raised on "cafe au lait". Apparently, the Russians had introduced "Turkish coffee" to the Eastern Bloc. After this introduction, Mesaros brought to Mark dozens of articles and books written by himself and his colleagues at the Hi storical Institute on the social history of 19 th century Slovakia.6 Once he had read them, Mark would have a good back- 4 For the Dubce k era , popularl y kn own as the " Prague Spring," see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion of Czechoslovakia, / 968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Sto larik (Munde lein, IL : Bo lchazy-Carducc i, 20 I 0). 1..:udovit Holotik, Stefa nikovska legenda a vznik CSR (Brati slava: Slove nska academia vied. 1958); fo r th e attacks upon Holot ik see Jan Ml ynarik , " Hi stori ci v Enckylopedii Slovenska- bilanci a neostalinskeho kadrovani a (Studia k slovenskej histori ografii )" Premeny 25 (4, 1988), 147-8. 6 Mesaros's most important publication was Rolnicka a narodnostna otazka na Slovensku, 1848-1900; k problematikef eudalnych prei itkov (Bratislava : Slovenska academia vi ed, 1959). 5 126 SLOVAKIA 2021 ground understanding of the archival sources which he would subsequently find in various Slovak state archives. After having spent their first night in the nearby Hotel Krym, Mark and Anne proceeded to the headquarters of the Slovak State Archives on the " Ulica obrancov mieru" (Street of the Defenders of Peace; today 's Stefanikova Street). There they met and befriended Dr. Frantisek Bielik, one of the archivists who was interested in the topic of Slovak immigration .7 He subsequently introduced the couple to Deputy Director Jozef Mazur who, it turned out, was Mark 's long-lost cousin on his mother's side. They had a joyful reunion during which Jozef Mazur showed Mark photos of himself visiting with Mark 's family in Turciansky Svaty Martin during the Second World War. Jozef then wrote Mark an official letter of introduction to all the Slovak State Archives scattered across the country, in which Jozef instructed the local archivists to help Mark in finding material s on Slovak emigration to North America. For the next two weeks Frantisek Bielik found such materials for Mark in the Bratislava State Archives. While Mark and Anne stayed at the nearby inexpensive Hotel Tatra, which was full of Russians, they had a curious experience. Every morning when they ate breakfast in the hotel 's dining room, they ordered the same things- ham and eggs with rolls and coffee. The total bill was always 28 crowns, which they rounded up to 30, much to the deli ght of their middle-aged waiter, who collected the money on the spot. They were not used to waiters doing this, because in North America waiters or waitresses usually submitted a bill , and the customers paid through a cashier, who controlled the amount requested and paid. One day, the middle-aged waiter took the day off and was replaced by a much younger colleague. Mark and Anne ordered the same breakfast, but the new waiter charged them 48 crowns! Not wishing to create a scene, they paid the 48 crowns and left. The next day, when the middle-aged waiter returned, they showed him the previous day's breakfast bill. He was furiou s, he apologized, did not charge them for their breakfast, and vowed that his younger colleague would never again repl ace him . Mark and Anne wondered how often waiters in 7 While Bielik started hi s career at the Slovak State Archives, he later switched to the Institute for Slovaks Abroad of the Matica slovenska and published, amon g many others things, the four- volume compendium of documents on Slovak immigrati on entitled Slovenske vystahovalectvo. Dokumenty / -4 (Bratislava: Slovenska academ ia vied, 1969- 1985). SLOVAKIA 2021 127 Slovakia (and elsewhere in Europe) cheated their customers in this way. After their stay in Bratislava, Mark and Anne drove north to the city of Trnava, to do research in the archives of the Spolok Sv. Yojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert). They stayed with the family of Jozef Mazur, who introduced Mark to the Director of the Spolok, Msgr. Jan Postenyi . The latter was delighted to meet Mark, because Postenyi had been on a tour of the USA in 193 7, and had since not met with any American Slovaks. He gladly opened his rich archive to Mark, where the latter discovered many documents pertaining to the history of the Slovak League of America during and after World War I. These included a carbon-copy of the 1915 Cleveland Agreement. 8 After a week's stay in Trnava, Mark and Anne set out for northern Slovakia, where they met additional members of their family. In Cadca they stayed with Mark 's uncle Jozef Stolarik, who took Mark to see his grandmother Anna Stolarikova and her daughter Terezia Bosakova in the hilly settlement of Dlha, near the city of Turzovka. Anna had not seen her grandson since his Christening in 1943 . Since Anna was illiterate, she wondered how Mark had managed to find her. Mark took out a road map of Europe and showed her the roads they had driven from Stuttgart to Slovakia, but it was hard for her to comprehend what he was showing. Mark, meanwhile, was amused that she was wearing black Converse sneakers. Uncle Jozef explained that it was easier for her to climb up the hill to her house in sneakers than in leather shoes. There was no road up the hill from the one below. After having visited two more aunts and their families, in midJuly, Mark and Anne set out for the city of Martin, Mark's birthplace. While driving between the city of Zilina and the ruins of castle Strecno, Mark and Anne suddenly spotted a long column of Russian military vehicles parked on the old road beside the new one. They were engaged in war games called "operation Sumava" in order to intimidate the Czechoslovak government into stopping the transformation of Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," as the first Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, 8 For the history of the Spolok Sv. Vojtecha see Stefan Hanakovic, Dejiny Spolku sviiteho Vojtecha (Trnava : Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 2005), especia ll y pages 281-84 for Postenyi ' s trip to America. The Cleve land Agreement can be found in the Archiv Spolku Svateho Vojtecha, Politika, fasc. 235 , fol. A. c.2 128 SLOVAKIA 2021 Alexander Dubcek, put it. As he made clear in hi s memo irs, he and hi s followers were trying to turn communist Czechoslovakia into a Social Democratic Czechoslovakia.9 His colleagues in the Warsaw Pact, particularly Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka and East German leader Walter Ulbricht, vehemently disapproved of the path of the so-called Prague Spring, and "operation Sumava" was a prelude to the later in vas ion of Czechoslovakia. 10 Meanwhile, when Mark saw these Soviet military veh icles, he instantly shouted at Anne to start photographing them , because he was driving and was afraid to stop the car, lest the Russians arrest him. A terrified Anne grabbed hi s 35mi llimeter camera and took several color slides of these vehicles. Russ ian military vehicles parked on the old road between Z ilina and Strecno in northern Slovakia, Jul y, 1968 9 Hope Dies Last: The Autohiography of Alexander Dubcek, ed. and trans. by Jiri Hochman (New York: Kodansha International, 1993), 277. 10 For the views of Brezhnev, Gomulka and Ulbricht, see the chapters by Mikhail Latysh, Lukasz Kaminski and Riidi ger Wenzke in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact In vasion, 1-18, 95- 128 and 137-64. SLOVAKIA 2021 129 Russian "Katyusha" rocket launchers on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July, 1969. Russian ambulance and military vehicles on old road between Zilina and Strecno, July 1968. After this harrowing experience, Mark and Anne kept driving around the Strecno pass until they reached the city of Martin. Here 130 SLOVAKIA 2021 they met Uncle Rudolf and hi s family and stayed with them for a week while Mark worked in the Literary Archive of the Matica slovenska. Here he met Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the Slovak National Library of the Matica slovenska. The two of them agreed upon an exchange of books and other materials in the future , a promise which is still in effect. While in Martin, at the urging of Frantisek (Ferko) Bielik, Mark attended the 6th Congress of the Slovak Historical Society, where he heard Dr. Lubomir Liptak 's attack upon the "deformation" of Slovak hi story by Marxist hi storian s in the previous decades. 11 He also heard Prof. Milos Gosiorovsky' s plea for the federation of Czechoslovakia based upon the Cleveland Agreement of 1915. 12 Mark was amused by Ferko Bielik 's antics at this Congress- he lifted hi s hand in approval of various motions made, whi le shaking hi s head sideways in disapproval. He explained that the conference organizers only counted the raised hands, not the heads shaking sideways. This was a small gesture of disapproval of the conference proceedings. After their stay in Martin, at the beginning of August, the newlyweds set out for the city of Presov, to do research in the archives of the former county of Saris, from where the first immigrants had left for America. 13 In Presov they met and stayed with Anne's uncle Andrej Krasnay in the Sid lisko Dukelskych hrdinov (the Apartment Complex of the Heroes of the Duk la Pass). Shortly after their arrival , Andrej took Mark and Anne to visit her grandmother in her vi ll age for the first time, as well as other aunts and uncles. At Andrej 's condo Mark and Anne had to get used to the socialist way of life. For instance, sometimes the water flowed from the faucets in Andrej's apartment, sometimes not. Therefore, Andrej kept his tub full of water, so that he would not run out. Sometimes the water was hot. Sometimes it was not. Whenever the water flowed hot, Andrej called the couple to immediately take a bath. And, even though Presov had street li ghts, they were not turned on at night, in order to conserve electricity. When Mark went to do research in the Slovak State Archives in Presov, which was located on the Main Square, right beside the church of St. Nicholas, he had some interesting experiences. When he met 11 Cubomir Liptak, "U loha a postavenie historiografie v nasej spolocnosti, Hisloricky casopi.1· XVII , c. l , 1969, 98- 11 7. 12 Milos Gosiorovsky, "Slovaci za prvej svetovej vojny," in Slovaci a ich narodnv v;ivin, ed. Oto Takac (Brati slava: Slovenska academ ia vied, I969), 29 1-305 . 13 Slovak State Archives in Presov, county Saris, podzupan, 9809, VB, 1879. SLOVAK.IA 2021 131 Andrej Lukac, the Director of the Archive, the latter was cool to Mark's visit. He claimed that the material Mark was searching for was not yet processed and suggested that Mark return sometime in the future, when it would become available. Mark then asked if Lukac knew Jozef Mazur, to which Lukac replied, "Hej , onje moj set1'' (Of course! He's my boss.) To which Mark replied, "Hej, on je moj bratranec." (Of course! He's my cousin.) As soon as Lukac heard Mark ' s reply, he jumped into action. Lukac suggested that, since Mark could not read Magyar, and most of the documents were in that language, he hire a translator. Mark agreed and the next day Lukac introduced Mark to Mr. Grant. The latter was the descendant of a Scottish soldier who had remained in Central Europe in the 17 th century. Mr. Grant was in his 80's, he had been educated in the old Austria-Hungary, and knew Slovak, Magyar, German and Latin. He was overly polite, as such gentlemen were trained to be and, whenever he found an interesting document to translate, he would say "No, prosim Vas pekne," which means "Now, if you please," and then would proceed to translate. Lukac suggested that Mark pay Mr. Grant I 00 crowns per day, which was the going rate for such services. Mark agreed, since on the black market that would come to only $3.00 (US) a day. Mr. Grant was so intelligent that, after he had translated some documents, he grasped what Mark was looking for, and then did his translating without any more superv1s1on. Mark and Anne also did research in Kosice. Once they had exhausted their sources in Presov, they drove south to Kosice, to work in the fonner archives of Abov and Zemplin counties, which were housed in the former Abov county headquarters on Orlia Street, one block from the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth. As they drove into Kosice and approached the main square, they noticed and photographed a bust of General Milan R. Stefanik on a pedestal that was obviously erected spontaneously and hurriedly by some local patriots on the exact spot where a much larger statue of Stefanik had been erected in the l 920's. The statue was removed by communist authorities in the I 950's. (See the photo on page 133) This bust testified to the rise of Slovak nationalism during the Dubcek era. At the Slovak State Archives in Kosice Mark and Anne 132 SLOVAKIA 2021 were welcomed by the Director, Ladislav Andrasi and his assistant, Anna Fedorjakova. The latter willingly and eagerly helped Mark to translate documents from Magyar into Slovak. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne were joined by Professor Timothy Smith and another one of his graduate students, Oksana Dragan, who had both just come down from Poland in Smith's brown Volkswagen. Smith was studying Slovak Lutheran immigration from eastern Slovakia while Oksana was researching Rusyn (Ukrainian) immigration to North America. Smith then suggested to Mark that he a lso consult the Roman Catholic bishop's archives, located on Lenin Street, opposite the Cathedral. Since Anne had studied Latin for five years in High School, she volunteered to do this and was assisted by the Rev. Alojs Tkac, who was in charge of the archives. After the collapse of Communism, the latter was e levated to the post of Bishop, and later, Archbishop of Kosice. 14 Meanwhile, Professor Smith arranged a meeting with an "Action Committee" of the newly-resurrected Greek Catholic Church, led by Msgr. Jan Hirka, who, once Communism collapsed, was e levated to Eparch (Bishop) of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Presov. 15 On the evening of August 20, 1968, Mark and Anne, together with Timothy Smith and Oksana Dragan, decided to dine together. They went to the Magyar Restaurant in Kosice , where they enjoyed an exotic meal and did some dancing to the tunes of a Gypsy (Roma) orchestra. 14 Alojz Tkac was persecuted by the Communi sts durin g the period of "Normalization" ( 1970- 1989) and penned hi s memoirs in Pohl'adv z kriiovatky (Kapusany: Bens, 2004). 15 For the hi story of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia from 1968 to 1980, see Martin Lupco, "Grec kokatolick a a pravoslavna cirkev na Slovensku v rokoch 19681980," in Jaroslav Corani c- Jana Koprivnakova- Peter Sturak eds. Grekokatolicka cirkev na Slovensku vo svetle vyroci II (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 2012), 165-77. Msgr. Jan H irka published hi s memoirs in Pod ochranou Marie: Pastier v zlui be cirkvi (Presov: Presovska univerzita v Presove, 20 13 ). SLOVAKIA 2021 133 Bust of General M.R. Stefanik on the main square, Kosice, August, 1968. 134 SLOVAKIA 2021 Around 11 :00 p.m. all four researchers decided to drive back to their abodes in Presov. As Mark and Anne drove through the village of Drienov, just north of Kosice, a black cat ran in front of their car. Although they did not kill it, Mark wondered aloud if it signaled that they would have bad luck. "I hope not," Anne answered. Around 4:30 a.m. on August 21 , Mark and Anne were awakened by a very loud noise coming from the streets of Presov. At first they thought that it was the sound of jackhammers, and Mark began to curse the workers who could not wait until 8:00 a.m. to repair the streets. Then they heard a knocking on the door to the apartment. Andrej Krasnay gingerly approached the door and asked, "who ' s there?" Mark and Anne were afraid that the Secret Police had come for them, because they always came at night. Instead, it was the next-doorneighbor. He told Andrej something and Andrej then knocked on Mark and Anne's glass door, came in and announced that "The Russians, Poles, East Germans, Magyars and Bulgarians are occupying us!" 16 All three then understood that the noise from the street was not from jackhammers, but from tanks. Dazed, Mark and Anne decided to immediately dress and repair to the Hotel Dukla, where Professor Smith and Oksana Dragan were staying. It was sunrise by the time they arrived and Smith had just arisen. Mark knocked on his door and as Smith opened it, Mark blurted out "the Russians are invading us." Smith looked out his window at the tanks and remarked that he thought it was military maneuvers again . Mark assured him that it was not, that this was a real invasion . Smith then suggested that Mark go find Anne, who had gone upstairs to inform Oksana of the invasion , to come down to the dining room to discuss the situation. The four researchers, along with a young and lonely waiter, were the only customers in the dining room. While Smith ate a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and rolls , the three students were too frightened to eat. Smith nonchalantly remarked, " We ' re Americans. This doesn ' t concern us." He cou ldn 't have been more wrong. Mark was born in Turciansky Svaty Martin in 1943 and Oksana in Berlin in 1942. Oksana was the daughter of the editor of the 16 The East Germans did not parti cipate in the invasion . For a detailed ex planati on sec Rildi gcr Wcnzkc, "The Rol e and Acti vities of the SEO, the East German State and Its Military During th e ' Prague Spring' of 1968," in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion, 137-64. SLOVAKIA 2021 135 pro-independence Ukrainian weekly Svoboda, published in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both were post-war refugees who, with their families, had ended up in Canada and the USA after the war. Neither the Soviet Union, nor Czechoslovakia, recognized dual citizenship at that time. Either one of these students could be detained by the authorities, whether Czechoslovak or Russian . Smith, however, was so unconcerned about the invasion that he decided that all four researchers should carry on as if nothing had happened. Thus, he instructed Mark and Oksana to go to the state archives and continue with their research. Meanwhile, he took Anne with him to serve as a translator in the Presov city archives. When Smith met with the Mayor of Presov, who was clearly shattered by the invasion, Smith asked for permission to do research in the city archives. The Mayor replied, with Anne translating, that "due to the extraordinary circumstances," the city archives were closed. Smith would not take no for an answer. He repeated his request, and Anne repeated the translation that the archives were closed. After three tries, Smith gave up and told Anne to go join Mark in the state archives. When Mark and Oksana arrived at the Slovak State Archives, they noticed that the entire staff was looking out the windows at the tanks (T55 ' s) roaring by, except Mr. Grant. The latter was nonchalantly reading and translating Magyar documents, oblivious to the noise outside. After a while Mr. Grant's behavior puzzled Mark so much that he asked Mr. Grant, "how can you continue to work while we are being invaded?" Mr. Grant smiled and replied, "This is my fifth invasion ." When Mr. Grant saw the puzzled look on Mark ' s face , he explained that the Russians had broken through the Carpathians into Hungary in the fall and winter of 1914-1915, then Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army occupied Presov in 1919, the Germans occupied Slovakia in 1944 and the Russians in 1945, and again in 1968. " So, what's new?" he asked. "But, don't you want to see the Russian tanks?" Mark asked. Mr. Grant gestured no with his hand. Then he added, "You should have seen a German Tiger. That was a tank!" Mr. Grant then reminisced that, shortly after the Second World War had ended, he took the train from Presov to Kos ice. About half way there he spotted four destroyed tanks in a nearby field . Three were Russian T34 ' s and one was a German Tiger with its treads blown off. It was obvious what had happened. 136 SLOVAKIA 2021 After these reassuring words from Mr. Grant, Mark and Anne cairned down and decided to return to Andrej's apartment, to get their camera, and take some pictures of the invasion. After having eaten some lunch, the intrepid pair set out on Uti ca cervenej arrnady [Red Army Street] (today's Levoca Street) towards the main intersection of Presov at Utica Slovenskej republiky rad [Street of the Slovak Socialist Republic] , today 's Hlavna ulica (Main Street), right in front of the Bosak Bank. 17 There the pair saw a burning Russian military vehicle, which some tank had previously rammed. Just as they were passing by the Bosak Bank, another tank roared by and hit the burning vehicle and it lunged towards the bank . Seeing the approaching truck out of the comer of his eye, Mark shoved Anne out of the way and prepared to be crushed. Fortunately, there was a very strong guard-rail at this location, and it stopped the burning vehicle. After Mark and Anne recovered from this near-fatal mishap, they crossed the street and, upon the urging of a local, climbed up the stairs of the Ukrainian Theater and emerged onto a balcony, where they had an unobstructed view of the invasion . They started to take color slides of the Russian tanks and other vehic les. Ru ss ian military vehicles on Dukla Street, Presov, August 21, 1968. Meanwhile, in the morning they had noticed that elderly citizens had lined up outside various food stores, to "stock up" in case the 17 This bui ldi ng was erected by the American Slovak millionaire Michal Bosak in the I 920 's. He also built a school in Okruhle, hi s village of origin. For more on Bosak see Michal Bosak & Rudolf Bosa k, Michal Bosak- americkj bankar zo Sarisa (Presov, Ibi s Publishin g, 1997). SLOVAKIA 2021 137 Russian soldiers started looting, as they had done in 1945 . By noon, however, the dynamics had changed. Hundreds of students, who had been home for summer vacation, started to pour into Presov. Soon, they began marching up and down the main square, shouting " Ysetci l'udia na chodniku nemiluju republiku!" (People on the sidewalk do not love the Republic) an old communist slogan from May-day parades. Soon a few of the bravest students jumped onto the street, at the main crossing located at the Bosak Bank, and stopped the tanks! Students blocking Russian tanks at intersection of Dukla and Red Anny Streets, Presov, August 21, 1968. They held up the invasion for three hours. Finally, by mid-afternoon, a Russian military helicopter hovered overhead and must have given the driver of the lead tank orders to proceed because, at that moment, the lead tank lowered its gun and began swinging it from side-to-side, while simultaneously roaring its engine. (Photo next page). That had the desired effect, as the students jumped aside to avoid being hit by the barrel of its canon. After that the tanks proceeded closely and quickly, in order to not give the students a chance to once 138 SLOVAK.IA 2021 again jump in front and stop the tanks. On the first day of the invasion, the commander of occupation forces in Presov announced a state of Martial Law to begin at I 0:00 p.m. Instead of obeying him, the citizens of Presov hit the streets in large numbers and began to shout "Rusi domov! Rusi domov!" (Russians, go home! Russians, go home!). When an armored scout-car appeared, the people began to pelt it with bricks and bottles and it quickly fled the scene. Russian military helicopter hovering above Presov, August 21 , 1968. Russian scout car and tanks on a side street in Presov, August, 1968. SLOVAKIA 2021 139 During the day individuals posted large anti-Russian posters and placards onto shop windows. One large cartoon was Mark's favorite: It depicted a Russian soldier, who had just had a bowl movement, rising from the toilet and the reactionary communist Vasil Bil'ak was licking his ass! Mark wanted to photograph it, but was afraid to do so, because it was rumored that agents of the Russian KGB were in town, and were arresting people taking such pictures. The citizens of Presov suspected that Vasil Bil'ak, a conservative member of the Czechoslovak Politburo, was one of the traitors who had urged the Russians to invade. The citizens were right. 18 For three days the Russians hurtled through Presov in the direction of Poprad. By the end of the week, when the city was fully occupied. (See the next 5 photographs) Russian soldier guarding tank in central Presov , August, 1968. 18 Six members of the Politburo, including Vasil Bil'ak , signed such a letter of invitation to the Ru ssians just before the invasion. For a copy of this letter see Otakar Korinek, Poz;vvaci list 1968 (Bratislava: Albert Marencin PT, 2006), 82-3. 140 SLOVAKIA 2021 Russ ian soldiers talking to civili ans, Presov, August, 1968. Russ ian vehicles bes ides Post Office in Presov, August 1968 SLOVAKIA 2021 141 Russian soldiers and officers in a military vehicle, Presov, August, 1968. Russian tanks in front of Czechoslovak military barracks in Presov, August, 1968. 142 SLOVAKIA 2021 A certain professor of the Ukrainian language at the University of Presov, whom Timothy Smith knew, approached the research group from America and suggested that they leave as soon as possible, because he knew that Oksana had been born in Berlin in 1942 and was in danger of being picked up by agents of the KGB . Timothy Smith agreed and the four researchers set out in their respective Volkswagens towards Bratislava via Sabinov, Brezovicka and the Levoca forest in order to avoid the formidable Branisko Pass, where columns of Russian vehicles were moving very slowly. Between Spisske Podhradie and the city of Poprad they had to pass many slow-moving Russian vehicles. At one point, they drove by an entire column stopped by the side of the road, with Russian soldiers picking pears from the trees. Apparently the soldiers were hungry and their supply-wagons had not caught up with them. As the researchers approached the city of Poprad, they saw huge red letters that spelled DUBCEK painted vertically on the entire side of a tall apartment building. A nearby crane revealed how this was made possible. Mark would have photographed this sign, except that he had just passed a moving column of Russians. Meanwhile, Mark's Volkswagen rattled from the ruts in the road made by tank tracks, a ll the way to Bratislava. As they drove west, Mark and Anne noticed that the locals had changed all the directional signs, to try to confuse the Russians . It didn ' t work, since the Russians had good maps of Czechoslovakia, as did Mark and Anne. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne also noticed many pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian signs along the way. For instance, in the village of Brezovicka, past the city of Sabinov, someone had painted " The Whole World Supports Dubcek" on an abandoned log cabin. (First photo next page) On the meandering Vah river, between the cities of Ruzomberok and Martin, the locals had painted on the concrete abutment " DUBCEK JE NAS JANOSIK" (Dubcek is our Janosik), conjuring up Slovakia's I 8 th century social bandit. 19 On the way to Bratislava, the little caravan stopped in Martin, Cadca and Trnava, to bid farewell to family and friends . At the Matica slovenska the sympathetic workers gave Mark souvenir copies of the newly-resurrected daily Narodne noviny, which the communists had 19 For the story of Janosik see Jozef Kocis, Neznamy Jano.~ik (Marti n: Osveta, 1986). SLOVAKIA 2021 143 shut down in the l 950's, but which now fully supported the Dubcekled government. (Second photo next page) As Mark was driving past the city of Trencin, he pulled out to pass a tractor dragging a wagon of hay and suddenly found himself confronted by a Russian truck barreling down on him. Fortunately, the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes and Mark narrowly avoided colliding with him. Anne upbraided Mark for this near-miss, to which he sourly replied, "The Russians don't belong here! " The American caravan stopped briefly in Trnava and Bratislava, to bid farewell to family and friends. While in Trnava at Jozef Mazur's apartment, where they had lunch, Oksana spied a piano in the living room. She started to play some tunes on it but, when she played the World War II German song "Lily Marl ene," Jozefs wife Lola, who was a schoolteacher and afra id for her job, sc reamed at Oksana to stop, because the communists had forbidden such songs from being played. Graffiti, "The Whole World Supports Dubcek" in Brezovicka, eastern Slovakia, August, 1968. 144 SLOVAKIA 2021 Narodne no viny (Martin, August 29, 1968): " We understand and support you, comrade Dubcek. You negoti ated outside of our homeland ." Thus, even though the Dubcek era had seen the abolition of censorship, self-censorship still prevailed. Meanwhile, as in most Slovak cities and villages, Trnava also had its share of pro-Dubcek and antiRussian posters. Graffiti in central Tmava: "Not what the occupiers demanded, but what we support with Dubcek and Svoboda," August, 1968. SLOVAKIA 2021 145 The final stop of the caravan was in Bratislava. When the four researchers appeared at the Historicky ustav SA V, they were greeted by the furious but dispirited historians and their secretarial staff. After some discussion , both sides agreed that, in view of the invasion and the uncertainty of the future , it would be best to cancel the planned scholarly conference on Emigration from Eastern Europe to North America in the nearby castle of Smolen ice, which belonged to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. After they bade their farewells , the four researchers returned to their cars parked on Dostojevskeho rad (Dostojevsky Street). Fearing that The Russians would control the border, and search their car for photographs, Mark decided to photograph some more pro-Dubcek and anti-Russian graffiti painted on various buildings in the vicinity, then hide his film in a difficult-to-find spot in his car and hope the Ru ssians would not find it. (See the last 3 Photos) After thi s the American caravan approached the Old Bridge and drove past Russian tanks parked on both sides. Once they had crossed into Petrfalka they noticed what looked like a whole regiment of Russians camped in the park of Janko Kral' beside the Danube River. As they approached the border, however, they saw that Slovak soldiers were still in charge, complete with their sub-machine guns. Only one lonely Russian soldier, seated on a bench and staring at the ground, could be seen. When Mark asked the Slovak customs officers about the Russian soldier, they replied, "We're ignoring him . You should too." After perfunctorily checking their passports and visas, the customs officers bade the travelers farewell and, after the Slovak soldier lifted and pulled into Czechoslovakia the heavy cantilevered gate, the four researchers drove into Austria and freedom . August of 1968 will forever be etched into Mark 's and Anne's memories. What started out as a happy honeymoon in Europe and in Slovakia turned into the tragedy of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. It was a brutal reminder of how superpowers can intimidate and subjugate their much smaller and weaker neighbors. 146 SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : "Long Live Dubcek .. ." August, 1968. Graffiti in Bratislava: " ... and Svoboda" August, 1968 SLOVAKIA 2021 Graffiti in Bratislava : " Moscow" (the other way), August, 1968. 147  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "The Russians are Invading Us!" Prešov, 1968 Description An account of the resource M. Mark Stolarik Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 121-147 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/91748c99a5834b903fa4c7b2a7002bf2.pdf bd85cb4b2e9651aa4f79e9f008eee20b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film �166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). �SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film �166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). �SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film 166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d9af052793730953f4cc37b715bcab92.pdf 6ec3ea09b34a0213154f3e4436e95f9b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 �4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 �ARTICLES �� SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 �4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 �ARTICLES �� 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 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. 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 2021 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 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 ARTICLES  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021